IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v102y2014icp75-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenhouse gas emissions and subjective well-being: An analysis of Swedish households

Author

Listed:
  • Andersson, David
  • Nässén, Jonas
  • Larsson, Jörgen
  • Holmberg, John

Abstract

In the contemporary discussion on society's transformation towards long-term climate targets, it is often implicitly assumed that behavioral changes, unlike technological changes, would lead to reductions in human well-being. However, this assumption has been questioned by researchers, who instead argue that people may live better lives by consuming less and reduce their environmental impact in the process. In this study we explore the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and subjective well-being, using a sample of 1000 Swedish respondents.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson, David & Nässén, Jonas & Larsson, Jörgen & Holmberg, John, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions and subjective well-being: An analysis of Swedish households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 75-82.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:102:y:2014:i:c:p:75-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.03.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000986
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.03.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Azar & Daniel Johansson, 2012. "Valuing the non-CO 2 climate impacts of aviation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 559-579, April.
    2. Kerkhof, Annemarie C. & Nonhebel, Sanderine & Moll, Henri C., 2009. "Relating the environmental impact of consumption to household expenditures: An input-output analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 1160-1170, February.
    3. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Stress that Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 339-366, June.
    4. Bengt Brülde, 2007. "Happiness and the Good Life. Introduction and Conceptual Framework," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Tjernström, E. & Tietenberg, T., 2008. "Do differences in attitudes explain differences in national climate change policies?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 315-324, April.
    6. repec:pri:cepsud:125krueger is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Richins, Marsha L & Dawson, Scott, 1992. "A Consumer Values Orientation for Materialism and Its Measurement: Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(3), pages 303-316, December.
    8. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger & David Schkade & Norbert Schwarz & Arthur A. Stone, 2006. "Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion," Working Papers 77, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    9. Tim Jackson, 2005. "Live Better by Consuming Less?: Is There a “Double Dividend” in Sustainable Consumption?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(1‐2), pages 19-36, January.
    10. Mazur, Allan, 2011. "Does increasing energy or electricity consumption improve quality of life in industrial nations?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2568-2572, May.
    11. Dolan, Paul & Peasgood, Tessa & White, Mathew, 2008. "Do we really know what makes us happy A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 94-122, February.
    12. Lenzen, Manfred & Wier, Mette & Cohen, Claude & Hayami, Hitoshi & Pachauri, Shonali & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2006. "A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 181-207.
    13. Malte Meinshausen & Nicolai Meinshausen & William Hare & Sarah C. B. Raper & Katja Frieler & Reto Knutti & David J. Frame & Myles R. Allen, 2009. "Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7242), pages 1158-1162, April.
    14. Lars Olsson & Tommy Gärling & Dick Ettema & Margareta Friman & Satoshi Fujii, 2013. "Happiness and Satisfaction with Work Commute," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 255-263, March.
    15. Kirk Brown & Tim Kasser, 2005. "Are Psychological and Ecological Well-being Compatible? The Role of Values, Mindfulness, and Lifestyle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(2), pages 349-368, November.
    16. Jeffrey Wilson & Peter Tyedmers & Jamie E. L. Spinney, 2013. "An Exploration of the Relationship between Socioeconomic and Well‐Being Variables and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(6), pages 880-891, December.
    17. Lisa Ryan & Suzanne Dziurawiec, 2001. "Materialism and Its Relationship to Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 185-197, August.
    18. Manfred Lenzen & Robert A. Cummins, 2013. "Happiness versus the Environment—A Case Study of Australian Lifestyles," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Johannes Buhl & Christa Liedtke & Katrin Bienge, 2017. "How Much Environment Do Humans Need? Evidence from an Integrated Online User Application Linking Natural Resource Use and Subjective Well-Being in Germany," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Li, Jun & Zhang, Dayong & Su, Bin, 2019. "The Impact of Social Awareness and Lifestyles on Household Carbon Emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 145-155.
    3. Vita, Gibran & Ivanova, Diana & Dumitru, Adina & Mira, Ricardo García & Carrus, Giuseppe & Stadler, Konstantin & Krause, Karen & Wood, Richard & Hertwich, Edgar, 2019. "Happier with less? Members of European environmental grassroots initiatives reconcile lower carbon footprints with higher life satisfaction and income increases," SocArXiv 3at5z, Center for Open Science.
    4. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Green mobility and well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    5. Jamil Khan & Roger Hildingsson & Lisa Garting, 2020. "Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Cities: Challenges of Eco-Social Integration in Urban Sustainability Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Pernilla Hagbert & Josefin Wangel & Loove Broms, 2020. "Exploring the Potential for Just Urban Transformations in Light of Eco-Modernist Imaginaries of Sustainability," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 204-216.
    7. Omri, Anis & Omri, Henda & Slimani, Sana & Belaid, Fateh, 2022. "Environmental degradation and life satisfaction: Do governance and renewable energy matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Bart Defloor & Brent Bleys & Elsy Verhofstadt & Luc Van Ootegem, 2022. "How to Reduce Individuals’ Ecological Footprint without Harming Their Well-Being: An Application to Belgium," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-30, April.
    9. Mònica Guillen-Royo, 2018. "Sustainable consumption and wellbeing: does on-line shopping matter?," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20181022, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    10. Lena Kilian & Anne Owen & Andy Newing & Diana Ivanova, 2022. "Exploring Transport Consumption-Based Emissions: Spatial Patterns, Social Factors, Well-Being, and Policy Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-26, September.
    11. Nicholas Apergis, 2018. "The Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Personal Well-Being: Evidence from a Panel of 58 Countries and Aggregate and Regional Country Samples," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 69-80, January.
    12. Wang, Keying & Cui, Yongyan & Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Xue, Jinjun & Yuan, Zhao, 2022. "Household carbon footprints inequality in China: Drivers, components and dynamics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    13. Dorji Yangka & Peter Newman & Vanessa Rauland & Peter Devereux, 2018. "Sustainability in an Emerging Nation: The Bhutan Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, May.
    14. Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2019. "Can We Consume Less and Gain More? Environmental Efficiency of Well-being at the Individual Level," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 110-120.
    15. Herziger, Atar & Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2020. "Is There Hope for the Double Dividend? How Social Context Can Shape Synergies and Tradeoffs between Sustainable Consumption and Well-Being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    16. Chongwu Xia & Chong Guan & Ding Ding & Yun Teng, 2024. "Navigating Success in Carbon Offset Projects: A Deep Dive into the Determinants Using Topic Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Chenoweth, Jonathan & López-Avilés, Alma & Morse, Stephen & Druckman, Angela, 2016. "Water consumption and subjective wellbeing: An analysis of British households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 186-194.
    18. Baltruszewicz, Marta & Steinberger, Julia K. & Paavola, Jouni & Ivanova, Diana & Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Owen, Anne, 2023. "Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    19. Yulin Liu & Min Zhang & Rujia Liu, 2020. "The Impact of Income Inequality on Carbon Emissions in China: A Household-Level Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, March.
    20. Joseph Anthony L. Reyes, 2021. "How Different Are the Nordics? Unravelling the Willingness to Make Economic Sacrifices for the Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-31, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Apergis, 2018. "The Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Personal Well-Being: Evidence from a Panel of 58 Countries and Aggregate and Regional Country Samples," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 69-80, January.
    2. Christopher Mackie & Conal Smith, 2015. "Conceptualizing Subjective Well-Being And Its Many Dimensions – Implications For Data Collection In Official Statistics And For Policy Relevance," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 16(3), pages 335-372, September.
    3. Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2019. "Can We Consume Less and Gain More? Environmental Efficiency of Well-being at the Individual Level," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 110-120.
    4. Herziger, Atar & Claborn, Kelly A. & Brooks, Jeremy S., 2020. "Is There Hope for the Double Dividend? How Social Context Can Shape Synergies and Tradeoffs between Sustainable Consumption and Well-Being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Justyna Kramarczyk & Mathieu Alemany Oliver, 2022. "Accumulative vs. Appreciative Expressions of Materialism: Revising Materialism in Light of Polish Simplifiers and New Materialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 701-719, February.
    6. Manfred Lenzen & Robert A. Cummins, 2013. "Happiness versus the Environment—A Case Study of Australian Lifestyles," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Morris, Eric A., 2015. "Should we all just stay home? Travel, out-of-home activities, and life satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 519-536.
    8. Binder, Martin & Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Guardiola, Jorge, 2020. "Does it have to be a sacrifice? Different notions of the good life, pro-environmental behavior and their heterogeneous impact on well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Yongfeng Ma & Shuyan Chen & Aemal J. Khattak & Zheng Cao & Muhammad Zubair & Xue Han & Xiaojian Hu, 2022. "What Affects Emotional Well-Being during Travel? Identifying the Factors by Maximal Information Coefficient," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-10, April.
    10. Nazaret Ibáñez-Rueda & Mònica Guillén-Royo & Jorge Guardiola, 2020. "Pro-Environmental Behavior, Connectedness to Nature, and Wellbeing Dimensions among Granada Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-16, November.
    11. David Perez-Barbosa & Junyi Zhang, 2017. "Transport-Based Social Exclusion in Rural Japan: A Case Study on Schooling Trips of High School Students," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 235-250.
    12. Lorenz, Olga, 2018. "Does commuting matter to subjective well-being?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 180-199.
    13. Dolan, Paul & Metcalfe, Robert, 2012. "The relationship between innovation and subjective wellbeing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1489-1498.
    14. Jana Krizanova & Jorge Guardiola, 2021. "Happy but Vegetarian? Understanding the Relationship of Vegetarian Subjective Well-Being from the Nature-Connectedness Perspective of University Students," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2221-2249, October.
    15. Vita, Gibran & Ivanova, Diana & Dumitru, Adina & Mira, Ricardo García & Carrus, Giuseppe & Stadler, Konstantin & Krause, Karen & Wood, Richard & Hertwich, Edgar, 2019. "Happier with less? Members of European environmental grassroots initiatives reconcile lower carbon footprints with higher life satisfaction and income increases," SocArXiv 3at5z, Center for Open Science.
    16. Ala-Mantila, Sanna & Heinonen, Jukka & Junnila, Seppo, 2014. "Relationship between urbanization, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and expenditures: A multivariate analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 129-139.
    17. Heidi Bruderer Enzler & Andreas Diekmann, 2015. "Environmental Impact and Pro-Environmental Behavior: Correlations to Income and Environmental Concern," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 9, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology.
    18. Conal Smith & Christopher Mackie, 2015. "Conceptualizing Subjective Well-Being and its Many Dimensions – Implications for Data Collection in Official Statistics and for Policy Relevance," Statistics in Transition new series, Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Polska), vol. 16(3), pages 335-372, September.
    19. Julia Ingenfeld & Tobias Wolbring & Herbert Bless, 2019. "Commuting and Life Satisfaction Revisited: Evidence on a Non-linear Relationship," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 2677-2709, December.
    20. Amy Isham & Caroline Verfuerth & Alison Armstrong & Patrick Elf & Birgitta Gatersleben & Tim Jackson, 2022. "The Problematic Role of Materialistic Values in the Pursuit of Sustainable Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-20, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:102:y:2014:i:c:p:75-82. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.