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Equity in the City: On Measuring Urban (Ine)quality of Life

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  • Marco Brambilla
  • Alessandra Michelangeli
  • Eugenio Peluso

Abstract

In economic literature, the quality of life (QoL) in a city is usually assessed through the standard revealed-preference approach, which defines a QoL index as the monetary value of urban amenities. This paper proposes an innovative methodology to measure urban QoL when equity concerns arise. The standard approach is extended by introducing preferences for even accessibility to amenities throughout the city into the QoL assessment. The QoL index is then reformulated to account for the unequal availability of amenities across neighbourhoods. The more unbalanced the distribution of amenities across neighbourhoods, the lower the assessment based on the new index. This methodology is applied to derive a QoL index for the city of Milan. The results show that the unequal distribution of amenities across neighbourhoods significantly affects the assessment of QoL for that city.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Brambilla & Alessandra Michelangeli & Eugenio Peluso, 2013. "Equity in the City: On Measuring Urban (Ine)quality of Life," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(16), pages 3205-3224, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:16:p:3205-3224
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098013484539
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    Cited by:

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    2. Biagi, Bianca & Ladu, Maria Gabriela & Meleddu, Marta, 2018. "Urban Quality of Life and Capabilities: An Experimental Study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 137-152.
    3. Olle Järv & Kerli Müürisepp & Rein Ahas & Ben Derudder & Frank Witlox, 2015. "Ethnic differences in activity spaces as a characteristic of segregation: A study based on mobile phone usage in Tallinn, Estonia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(14), pages 2680-2698, November.
    4. Croci Angelini, Elisabetta & Michelangeli, Alessandra, 2012. "Axiomatic measurement of multidimensional well-being inequality: Some distributional questions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 548-557.
    5. Louis Eeckhoudt & Elisa Pagani & Eugenio Peluso, 2023. "Multidimensional risk aversion: the cardinal sin," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 320(1), pages 15-31, January.
    6. Boggio, Margherita & Beria, Paolo, 2019. "The role of transport supply in the acceptability of pollution charge extension. The case of Milan," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 92-106.
    7. Giuseppe Mastromatteo, 2011. "H.P. Minsky And Policies To Countervail Crises," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Economia e Finanza ief0102, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    8. Francesco Andreoli & Alessandra Michelangeli, 2014. "Welfare measures to assess urban quality of life," Working Papers 09/2014, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    9. Felix N. Fernando & Dennis R. Cooley, 2016. "An Oil Boom’s Effect on Quality of Life (QoL): Lessons from Western North Dakota," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 1083-1115, December.
    10. Alessandra Michelangeli & Eugenio Peluso, 2016. "Cities and Inequality," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 3, pages 47-60.
    11. Donatella Depperu & Giacomo Magnani & Lisa Crosato & Caterina Liberati, 2021. "Growth of Firms in a Fragmented Cultural Industry: Italian Commercial Art Galleries’ Competitive Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, April.
    12. Giuseppe Mastromatteo, 2011. "The Debate on the Crisis: Recent Reappraisals of the Concept of Functional Finance," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Economia e Finanza ief0105, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    13. Riccardo Borgoni & Giacomo Degli Antoni & Marco Faillo & Alessandra Michelangeli, 2017. "Preferences for living in homogenous communities and cooperation: a new methodological approach combining the hedonic price model and a field experiment," Econometica Working Papers wp62, Econometica.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis

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