Variability in impact of air pollution on subjective well-being

This paper examines the impact of variability in impact of air pollution on life satisfaction (LS). Previous studies have shown robust negative impact of air pollution on subjective well-being (SWB). However, empirical studies that consider variability in air pollution effects through comparative city study are limited. This study provides comparative evaluation of two major Chinese cities: Beijing and Shanghai. We apply a geo-statistical spatial interpolation technique on pollution data from monitoring sites to estimate the Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂), coarse particles with a diameter between 2.5 and 10 μm (PM₁₀) and fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5) pollution exposure of respondents of a survey conducted in 2016. The results show that all pollutants have robust negative impacts on LS for Beijing residents, whereas only SO₂ and NO₂ have significant negative impacts on LS for Shanghai residents; Per unit impact of SO₂ is greater in Shanghai, and that of NO₂ is greater in Beijing. Beijing and Shanghai residents have almost same monetary valuation for SO₂ reduction but Beijing residents place approximately 1.5 times valuation on NO₂ reduction compared to Shanghai residents. Moreover, the LS of Beijing residents is sensitive to temporal changes in the pollution level, whereas Shanghai residents are unaffected by such changes.