3G.1 Effects of early life weather conditions on later life attitudes and outcomes
Joseph Gomes, Sonia Bhalotra, ISER, University of Essex, Colchester, UK; Irma Clots-Figueres, Department of Economics, University Carlos III of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
We study the impacts of climate variation in utero and soon after-birth on risk-preferences, subjective wellbeing, education and income in adulthood. The outcome data are drawn from the UK Understanding Societysurvey which includes approximately 45000 adults born in the UK. We match county of birth for these individuals to (geocoded) weather station level data from the Met Office to generate an estimation sample in which births span about 90 years across all UK counties. Initial results indicate small effects of higher temperatures and rainfall in the second trimester of pregnancy on subjective wellbeing and physical health in later life. Investigation of potential mechanisms and other outcomes is in progress.
3G.2 The greener, the happier? The effects of urban green and abandoned areas on residential wellbeing
Christian Krekel, German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Berlin, Germany; Jens Kolbe, Institute for Economics and Business Law, Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin), Berlin, Germany; Henry Wüstemann, Institute for Landscape Architecture and
Environmental Planning, Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin), Berlin, Germany
This paper investigates the effects of urban green and abandoned areas on residential wellbeing in major German cities, using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel
(SOEP) for the time period between 2000 and 2012 and cross-section data from the
European Urban Atlas(EUA) for the year 2006. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), it calculates the distance to urban green and abandoned areas, measured as the Euclidean distance in 100 metres between households and the border of the nearest urban green and abandoned area, respectively, and the coverage of urban green and abandoned areas, measured as the hectares covered by urban green and abandoned areas in a pre- defined buffer area of 1000 metres around households, respectively, as the most important determinants of access to them. It shows that, for the 32 major German cities with more than 100000 inhabitants, access to urban green areas, such as parks, is positively associated, whereas access to abandoned areas, such as brownfields, is negatively associated with residential wellbeing, in particular with life satisfaction, as well as mental and physical health. The effects are strongest for residents who are older, accounting for up to a third of the size of the effect of being unemployed. Using panel data from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) for the time period between 2009 and 2012, this paper also shows that (older) residents who report living closer to greens have been diagnosed less often with certain medical conditions, including diabetes, sleep disorder, and joint disease.
3G.3 The health and wellbeing effects of commuting: evidence from exogenous shocks
Luke Munford, Manchester Centre for Health Economics, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Nigel Rice, Department of Economics and Related Studies and Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK; Jennifer Roberts, Department of Economics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Commuting time (CT) places a non-trivial constraint on the time use of workers. Recently, average CT has risen in many developed countries and it is recognised that the burden of commuting is potentially detrimental to mental health and well-being (H&WB). We
investigate the impact of CT on such outcomes using data from Understanding Society. These data contain detailed longitudinal information on labour market attachment, job tenure, CT, and measures of H&WB. Our identification strategy exploits the panel dimension of the data by considering individuals who report no change in either household location or employer or job role, but do report a non-trivial change in CT. We assume that such
individuals change the location, but not the nature, of employment. This allows identification of the impact of CT on H&WB by abstracting from the effects of potential compensating characteristics arising from changes in labour supply or housing relocation. Further, we condition on characteristics known to influence H&WB including income, education, marital status and household composition. Fixed-effects specifications allow us to control for individual unobserved time-invariant preferences. Our results suggest increased CT reduces wellbeing and objective measures of health for females, but has no impact on men. While we identify statistically significant decreases in wellbeing for women, the magnitude is modest; a 10 minute increase in commuting reduces wellbeing by around 0.07 (on a 1-36 scale). Whilst our identification strategy enables stronger identification of the causal effects of commuting than previous studies, the magnitudes we find are comparable to those reported elsewhere.
3G.4 The impact of air pollution on subjective wellbeing
Sarah Knight, University of York, York, UK
Improving human health and wellbeing is a governmental priority globally. The World Health Organisation defines health as a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well- being and not merely the absence of disease’. According to the European Environmental Agency, air pollution from industry costs Britain £3.4bn-£9.5bn a year in health and environmental damage. This project examines the relative contribution of the physical environment, specifically air quality, on self-reported quality of life. The subjective wellbeing (SWB) measures in the British Household Panel Survey(BHPS) and
Understanding Societywere spatially linked with detailed UK air pollution records held by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. These historical records hold ambient annual pollutant levels for the UK between 2001 and 2012, and include levels of respirable suspended matter (diameter smaller than 10 and 2.5 micrometres) as PM10 and PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and benzene.
Econometric analysis was then employed to identify the effect of air quality on subjective wellbeing, accounting for social and economic factors, and to address endogeneity concerns we use an instrumental variables approach. Early results indicate that pollution has a negative impact on SWB. This has significance for health, wellbeing and
environmental policy-making. Further analysis will explore if there are geographies and/or demographics that are more affected by changes in air quality.