Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/120969 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9312
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Existing studies that evaluate the impact of pollution on human beings understate its negative effect on cognition, mental health, and happiness. This paper attempts to fill in the gap via investigating the impact of air quality on subjective well-being using China as an example. By matching a unique longitudinal dataset at the individual level, which includes self-reported happiness and mental well-being measures, with contemporaneous local air quality and weather information according to the exact date of interview, we show that worse air quality reduces shorter-term hedonic happiness and increases the rate of depressive symptoms. However, life satisfaction, an evaluative measure of happiness, is largely immune from immediate bad air quality.
Subjects: 
air quality
mental well-being
life satisfaction
hedonic happiness
China
JEL: 
I31
Q51
Q53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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