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Discussions of the importance of public attitudes in shaping policy often lack clear evidence on causal relations between stated attitudes and observed behaviours. The 2011 OECD Survey of over 12,000 households allows analysing households’ environmental attitudes and behaviours in five different domains (electricity, food, transport, waste and water). Using econometric analysis, we investigate the relationship between stated environmental attitudes and indicators of civic engagement, such as voting in local elections, charity membership and membership in environmental organisations...

Environment

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While environmental economics studies using stated life satisfaction data have been gaining attention, much of this body of work remains exploratory. In this study we contribute to this emerging body of research by combining OECD survey data from four European countries on life satisfaction and perceptions of environmental quality with independent (i.e. mechanical) measurements of air quality and urbanity, from the European Environment Agency, to provide a broad picture of the environmental determinants of life satisfaction, and monetary valuation of air quality improvements. We also estimate that the value of a 1% reduction in air pollution (measured as mean annual PM10 concentrations) is worth the same on average as a 0.71% increase in per capita income. We find that environments which respondents perceive as noisy and lacking in access to green space have a significantly detrimental impact on life satisfaction. However, controlling for these negative factors (air, noise, and lack of green space), we also find a large positive residual impact of urban environments on life satisfaction. The use of independent, GIS-based measures of urbanity (proportion of urban surface area around households), as opposed to survey-based stated perceptions of urbanity, increases the precision of estimated air quality impacts on life satisfaction. Taken as a whole, our analysis highlights the need for conducting LS-based environmental assessment and valuation exercises using a broad array of independent data sources, in order both to obtain unbiased regression estimates and to facilitate interpretation of these estimates.

Environment --- Economics

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While environmental economics studies using stated life satisfaction data have been gaining attention, much of this body of work remains exploratory. In this study we contribute to this emerging body of research by combining OECD survey data from four European countries on life satisfaction and perceptions of environmental quality with independent (i.e. mechanical) measurements of air quality and urbanity, from the European Environment Agency, to provide a broad picture of the environmental determinants of life satisfaction, and monetary valuation of air quality improvements. We also estimate that the value of a 1% reduction in air pollution (measured as mean annual PM10 concentrations) is worth the same on average as a 0.71% increase in per capita income. We find that environments which respondents perceive as noisy and lacking in access to green space have a significantly detrimental impact on life satisfaction. However, controlling for these negative factors (air, noise, and lack of green space), we also find a large positive residual impact of urban environments on life satisfaction. The use of independent, GIS-based measures of urbanity (proportion of urban surface area around households), as opposed to survey-based stated perceptions of urbanity, increases the precision of estimated air quality impacts on life satisfaction. Taken as a whole, our analysis highlights the need for conducting LS-based environmental assessment and valuation exercises using a broad array of independent data sources, in order both to obtain unbiased regression estimates and to facilitate interpretation of these estimates.

Environment --- Economics

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Building on the OECD’s Better Life Initiative and new work using geospatial analysis, this paper investigates how reported life satisfaction relates to some of the urban structure indicators. To this end, it merges OECD household survey data with urban structure data from OECD’s Metropolitan Database, which includes a number of city-level indicators such as population and road density, as well as localised measures of land-use. The merged data permit analysis for five countries: France, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The findings from this analysis provide some evidence of a trade-off between home size and distance to the city centre, although the statistical power of this effect is relatively weak. Interestingly, regression analysis suggests that overall city-level compactness has a clear negative relationship with life satisfaction, regardless of whether individuals live in the urban core or in peri-urban areas. Land-use fragmentation is also found to have a negative relationship with individuals’ life satisfaction. These general patterns are for the most part robust to various statistical tests. They also hold when econometric analysis is conducted at the country level. Residents of cities with greater levels of centralisation – i.e. a greater share of the population living in the city centre – exhibit measurably lower levels of life satisfaction. A naïve interpretation of this result would suggest that anti-sprawl policies do not in fact improve overall welfare. This study does not support this conclusion. It does, however, give cause for consideration before accepting ‘win-win’ arguments for ‘smart growth,’ often brought forward to support increasingly concentrated, high-density development. The evidence presented here suggests that such policies are not without their welfare trade-offs, and that there will be winners and losers from their implementation. While high-density policies can clearly make a positive contribution to reducing local and global environmental externalities, many of these benefits are deferred and may largely accrue to future generations. A key general lesson from this study is that compensation of the losers may improve the equity effects of these policies, as well as prove more expeditious from a political economy perspective. One of the simplest approaches to compensation would be to balance pecuniary incentives for smart growth, such as higher development taxes or fees, with compensatory policies, such as subsidies or tax or fee offsets in other domains. The main policy conclusion from this study is that smart growth policies should include distributional analysis and recommendations for addressing concerns about inequalities flowing from the scoping and implementation of policies.

Environment

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• EndNote
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Building on the OECD’s Better Life Initiative and new work using geospatial analysis, this paper investigates how reported life satisfaction relates to some of the urban structure indicators. To this end, it merges OECD household survey data with urban structure data from OECD’s Metropolitan Database, which includes a number of city-level indicators such as population and road density, as well as localised measures of land-use. The merged data permit analysis for five countries: France, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The findings from this analysis provide some evidence of a trade-off between home size and distance to the city centre, although the statistical power of this effect is relatively weak. Interestingly, regression analysis suggests that overall city-level compactness has a clear negative relationship with life satisfaction, regardless of whether individuals live in the urban core or in peri-urban areas. Land-use fragmentation is also found to have a negative relationship with individuals’ life satisfaction. These general patterns are for the most part robust to various statistical tests. They also hold when econometric analysis is conducted at the country level. Residents of cities with greater levels of centralisation – i.e. a greater share of the population living in the city centre – exhibit measurably lower levels of life satisfaction. A naïve interpretation of this result would suggest that anti-sprawl policies do not in fact improve overall welfare. This study does not support this conclusion. It does, however, give cause for consideration before accepting ‘win-win’ arguments for ‘smart growth,’ often brought forward to support increasingly concentrated, high-density development. The evidence presented here suggests that such policies are not without their welfare trade-offs, and that there will be winners and losers from their implementation. While high-density policies can clearly make a positive contribution to reducing local and global environmental externalities, many of these benefits are deferred and may largely accrue to future generations. A key general lesson from this study is that compensation of the losers may improve the equity effects of these policies, as well as prove more expeditious from a political economy perspective. One of the simplest approaches to compensation would be to balance pecuniary incentives for smart growth, such as higher development taxes or fees, with compensatory policies, such as subsidies or tax or fee offsets in other domains. The main policy conclusion from this study is that smart growth policies should include distributional analysis and recommendations for addressing concerns about inequalities flowing from the scoping and implementation of policies.

Environment