Urbanization and its Effects on the Happiness Domains

By:	Cristina Bernini (University of Bologna) ; Alessandro Tampieri (University of Bologna and CREA, Université du Luxembourg)
We analyze the effects of urbanization on the specific components of the happiness function. We exploit the dataset HADL on Italian citizens over the period 2010-2013. A multilevel approach is used to take into account of regional heterogeneity in the happiness’s determinants. We find that, in line with much of the literature, urbanization is negatively related to subjective well-being. However, the impact of urbanization changes depending on the specific happiness spheres: while satisfaction with economic conditions is not affected by urbanization, job and family satisfaction increase with urbanization. Conversely, satisfaction with health, friendship, spare time and environment decrease with urbanization.
Keywords:	subjective well-being, happiness function, urbanization, regions, multilevel models
JEL:	I31 R10
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:17-10&r=ltv