| Subject well-being is an important indicator to measure the welfare of the inhabitants in a country or region. Compared with the general economic indicators such as GNP/ GDP, subjective well-being can accurately measure and reflect the different welfare demands. In recent years, although with the creation of wealth, the China’s high-speed economic development led to serious inequality and class conflicts, which have raised the reflection on the relationship between development and social welfare. What kind of development model is suitable for China? Can current socio-economic development enhance the national well-being?Based on these problems, some scholars have called for a transformation from a purely economic development to a more comprehensive social development. They think that the China’s future depends on political, social and public service reform which can eliminate social ills, stimulate economic vitality, and improve the well-being. Based on the perspective of welfare economics, these scholars realize that since the free market can fail, we should reposition the role of the government and the public service. They used data to investigate the effect of public services to the national well-being, and obtained some inspiring views. However, we found that the research indexes were so inappropriate that it could not be used to find the problem in a specific policy practice. In view of this situation, this paper establishes a series of subjective indicators, using the quantitative methods, to examine the potential problems of the urban public service, and public service satisfaction influence on urban residents’well-being. On this basis, we use Fujian’s cases to verify the effectiveness of our public service satisfaction indexes in measuring government performance, digging into the policy problems as well as prompting governance thereby enhancing the resident’s well-being.The paper structure is as follows:The first chapter is the introduction. It includes the background of this study, research issues, research values, the research frameworks and research methods, the literature review and evaluation of happiness and public service theory. In the second chapter, we used the data of the 2013 Chinese general social survey to describe the level of current urban public service and resident’s satisfaction happiness and the structural differences. In the third chapter, we used the multiple regression models to analyze the public service satisfaction effect on urban residents’well-being. Based on Fujian"s cases, the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was being applied to further excavate the urban public service problems and the potential impact on the residents’ well-being in the fourth chapter so that we can verify the effectiveness of our public service satisfaction indexes in measuring government performance, digging into the policy problems as well as prompting governance thereby enhancing the resident’s well-being. The fifth chapter is the conclusion, and we pointed out the deficiencies and improvement direction as well as the policy implications.The main findings and conclusions of this study are as follows:First, the current level of public service satisfaction is low and the service quality is also not so good. Meanwhile, a serious shortage of public service combines with the imbalance disrlbution of public service resources between rural and. rban areas making the disadvantaged groups hard to obtain the social protection and aid.Second, the gap between the rich and the poor seriously damage people’s happiness. The class stratification of resident’s happiness is so obvious in China. Due to a lack of social security, the fruit of economic development is inaccessible to the disadvantaged groups.Third, we used multiple linear regressions to discuss the public service satisfaction influence on urban residents’well-being. Finally we found that the city public service could meet the demand of residents in a certain extent and improve their well-being. At the same time, the improvement of the adequacy, universality, balance and convenience of public services was also able to promote resources distribution between different regions and different groups, thereby alleviating people’s anxiety and despair.Fourth, in order to verify the effectiveness of our public service satisfaction indexes in measuring government performance, digging into the policy problems as well as prompting governance thereby enhancing the resident’s well-being, we used Fujian’s cases and data to further excavate the urban public service problems. Finally, the following conclusions could be reached:in the aspect of public education, Fujian education resources in regional distribution was uneven, many children was difficult to get a fair education opportunities. On health care, the unbalanced regional distribution of medical resources and low level basic medical and health system have disordered people consistently. Many residents, who complained about expensive medical costs, the small range of medical insurance reimbursement and the low reimbursement ratio, were not satisfied with the health treatment. In terms of housing, limited affordable housing resources in Fujian province were assigned to superior class. In the aspect of social management, Fujian government did not do very well in the food and drug regulation. All these problems affected the residents’ happiness. It could be said that these indexes could help me to measure the performance of public service. According to the evaluation results, the government was also able to adjust the policy and promote the residents’ well-being.Therefore, this study suggests that the current public service has large policy implications. The public service reform can relieve the negative effects of the income gap and enhance expectations for equal opportunities, thereby promoting the happiness. |
