Exploring the Urban–Rural Dichotomy : Does Going Rural Mean Higher Life Satisfaction?
Abstract A stylised fact in regional and urban studies of life satisfaction in developed countries is that people living in cities report being less satisfied than those in rural areas. This article evaluates the hypothesis that it is not going rural per se that makes a difference, but the level of income and accessibility to services and amenities. Indeed, accessibility makes the difference. Employing the capability approach à la Sen, this analysis explicitly distinguishes the roles of the quantity of (i.e. capability) and accessibility to (i.e. functioning) services and amenities in the place of living. Upon analysing data from the 2013–2018 self-reported life satisfaction survey in Italy conducted by the National Institute of Statistics, the results suggest that the likelihood of being more satisfied is associated with living only in rural places that are economically richer and with higher quantitative and qualitative levels of infrastructural services. Keywords: life satisfaction, urban–rural, capabilities, functioning, quality of life.JEL: I31, R00
Year of publication: |
2022
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Authors: | Biagi, Bianca ; Meleddu, Marta |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
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