An integrated bio-economic model is developed to assess the impacts of pollution reduction policies on water quality and the economy. Emission levels of economic activities to water are determined based on existing environmental accounts. These emission levels are built into a dynamic economic...

Composite indicators are very popular, despite being affected by several problems that often result in lack of robustness of the rankings involved. The aim of this paper is to show that composite indicators can be safely used, provided that rankings are built via uncertainty analysis rather than...

To decide on the policy measures to be implemented, policymakers need comprehensive information on the costs and benefits of land conversion for society. Accordingly, the EU Biodiversity Strategy requires the member countries to assess their ecosystems and the economic value of their ecosystem...

Air pollution constitutes one of the main environmental problems in many countries. This paper uses the life satisfaction approach to environmental valuation (LSA) to investigate whether individuals habituate to air pollution and if a potential habituation effect influences the marginal rate of...

This paper studies whether pro-environmental consumption choices are consistent with utility maximization and what role the consumption behavior of reference persons and one's own past behavior play in this context. By combining data on individuals' pro-environmental consumption from a unique...

This paper provides a quantitative approach to assessing whether the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of Ecuadorian people is dependent on income and employment or on more distinctive features relating to Buen Vivir ethos. The latter are reflected in the indigenous Buen Vivir ideology, based mainly on...

We analyse the influence of climate on average life satisfaction in 79 countries using data from the World Values Survey. Climate is described in terms of ‘degree-months’ calculated as the cumulated monthly deviations from a base temperature of 65°F (18.3°C). Our results suggest that...

Concerns for environmental quality and its impact on people's welfare are fundamental arguments for the adoption of environmental legislation in most countries. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between air quality and subjective well-being in Europe. We use a unique dataset that merges...

The sustainable supply of energy is high on the agenda of many European countries. One of the pertinent issues, the future role of nuclear power, has gained increasing attention after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan. As a contribution to preference elicitation, we test whether the...

What predicts the evolution over time of subjective well-being? We correlate the trends of subjective well-being with the trends of social capital and/or GDP. We find that in the long and the medium run social capital largely predicts the trends of subjective well-being. In the short-term this...