Local Expressions of Subjective Well-being: The New Zealand Experience

MORRISON P. S. Local expressions of subjective well-being: the New Zealand experience, Regional Studies. Students of regional science have been preoccupied with economic drivers while at the same time implicitly assuming that increasing urban size and density raises local well-being. However, the geography of happiness may not mirror the geography of growth. Rather, there is a localization to the paradox of affluence mainly because raising population density in order to realize agglomeration economies can lower subjective well-being. This paper offers empirical support for this proposition by estimating city fixed-effects for three separate measures of subjective well-being while controlling for the characteristics of individuals as well as their perceptions of accessibility and social capital.