The Influence Of Air Pollution On The Subjective Well-being Of Chinese Residents

With the appearing of "Chinese dream","happiness" has become a hot topic.In recent years,more and more scholars focus on the relationship between living environment and residents’ subjective well-being.As the first environmental pollution problem in China,air pollution has to be taken seriously by people.Air pollution is the cost of Chinese rapidly economic growth,and it also reflects market failure.The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that we should accelerate the reform of the system for promoting ecological progress,focus on solving major environmental problems,continue to implement actions to prevent and control air pollution,and win the battle to protect the blue sky.In present society that advocates people’s livelihood,how to solve the serious air pollution problem and improve residents’ happiness has become an urgent task.Based on the data of CGSS,China Statistical Yearbook and Environmental Status Bulletin in 2013,this paper adopts the method of theoretical analysis and the method of empirical analysis to build an ordered probit model,so as to deeply explore the real relationship between air pollution and residents’ subjective well-being,and obtain the monetary compensation of air pollution.In the aspect of theoretical analysis,firstly by the analysis about happiness economics and market failure and air pollution,we understand the concept,origin and harm of air pollution,the concept,measurement and influencing factors of subjective well-being.It is concluded that air pollution is the embodiment of market failure and has a negative effect on residents’ subjective well-being.Air pollution directly stimulates residents’ senses,thereby affecting their physical and mental health as well as their subjective perception,causing troubles to residents’ travel,work and life,and inevitably reducing their subjective well-being.Air pollution is divided into objective air pollution and subjective air pollution,what really affects residents’ subjective well-being is subjective air pollution.The article also makes a detailed analysis of the current situation of Chinese residents’ subjective well-being and air pollution.In terms of empirical analysis,based on previous studies and available data information,this paper establishes an ordered probit model with setting subjective well-being as the explained variable.The results show that air pollution does have a negative impact on residents’ subjective well-being.However,different from previous studies,objective air pollution indicators reflected by direct regression results have no significant impact on residents’ subjective well-being.Based on the methods used by Van Praag and Baarsma(2005),this paper first established an equation for residents’ perceived air pollution and actual air pollution indicators,and calculated the order coefficient of subjective perceived pollution degree,and substituted it into the happiness equation instead of objective air pollution indicators.The results obtained are significant,proving that subjective well-being is affected indirectly rather than directly by air pollution,and what really affects its happiness is the air pollution status perceived by residents themselves.In addition,based on the happiness equation,this paper uses the coefficient relationship between the average annual household income and air pollution to obtain the compensation results of air pollution.For every 5% increase in SO2 concentration,NO2 concentration and PM10 concentration,residents will be compensated by 225 yuan,679 yuan and 661 yuan respectively.From the perspective of happiness economics,this paper takes air pollution as the main explanatory variable and proves the complex relationship between air pollution and residents’ subjective well-being.Finally,the paper think of three policy suggestions,such as improve public participation in environmental protection,improve governance ideas and strengthen legal system construction.Compared with most similar researches,this paper pays more attention to the exploration of research perspective and the innovation of research methods.However,due to the limit of my own level and the lack of research data,the paper still has some defects,which need to be constantly improved in the following research.The long-term development of society should follow both economic and ecological laws.This study can further deepen people’s understanding of air pollution and provide new ideas and scientific basis for current pollution control;Enhance residents’ awareness of environmental protection and promote their implementation of environmental protection actions.By estimating the monetary compensation for air pollution,relevant personnel can better coordinate the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution,so as to continuously improve the subjective well-being of residents.