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La Dolce Vita: Hedonic Estimates of Quality of Life in Italian Cities

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  • Emilio Colombo
  • Alessandra Michelangeli
  • Luca Stanca

Abstract

This paper provides an assessment of quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach. We analyze micro-level data for housing and labor markets to estimate compensating differentials for local amenities within five domains: climate, environment, services, society and economy. The estimated implicit prices are used to construct overall and domain-specific quality of life indices. We find that differences in amenities are reflected in substantial compensating differentials in housing prices, whereas the effects on wages are relatively small. Quality of life varies substantially across space and is strongly related to differences in public services and economic conditions. Overall, quality of life is highest in medium-sized cities of the Center-North, displaying relatively high scores in all the domains considered. Northern cities fare better with respect to services, social and economic conditions, while relatively worse for climate and environmental conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilio Colombo & Alessandra Michelangeli & Luca Stanca, 2010. "La Dolce Vita: Hedonic Estimates of Quality of Life in Italian Cities," Working Papers 201, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:201
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    3. Alessandra Michelangeli & Eugenio Peluso, 2016. "Cities and Inequality," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 3, pages 47-60.
    4. Izabela Kurtyka-Marcak & Maria Hełdak & Katarzyna Przybyła, 2019. "The Actual Demand for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers among Senior Citizens in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Leonardo Becchetti & Fabio Pisani, 2014. "Family Economic Well-Being, and (Class) Relative Wealth: An Empirical Analysis of Life Satisfaction of Secondary School Students in Three Italian Cities," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 503-525, June.
    6. Brambert Patryk & Kiniorska Iwona, 2018. "Changes in the Standard of Living in Rural Population of Poland in the Period of the Eu Membership," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 263-279, June.
    7. Roberto Basile & Valerio Filoso, 2018. "The market value of political partisanship: Quasi‐experimental evidence from municipal elections," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(S1), pages 193-209, March.
    8. Li Yang & Yung‐ho Chiu & Tzu‐Han Chang, 2023. "The impact of quality of life on industrial and agricultural production and environmental efficiency in China's provinces," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 1054-1072, March.
    9. Michiel N. Daams & Paolo Veneri, 2017. "Living Near to Attractive Nature? A Well-Being Indicator for Ranking Dutch, Danish, and German Functional Urban Areas," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 501-526, September.
    10. Shi, Tie & Zhu, Wenzhang & Fu, Shihe, 2021. "Quality of life in Chinese cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Leonardo Becchetti & Fabio Pisani, 2012. "Family money, relational life and (class) relative wealth:an empirical analysis on life satisfaction of secondary school students," Econometica Working Papers wp35, Econometica.
    12. Alessandra Michelangeli & Umut Türk, 2019. "Cities as drivers of social mobility," Working Papers 397, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    13. Luca Stanca & Ruut Veenhoven, 2015. "Consumption and happiness: an introduction," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 62(2), pages 91-99, June.
    14. G. D'Alessio, 2018. "Well-being, the Socio-economic Context and Price Differences: the North-South Gap," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 471-498.
    15. Francesco Burchi & Chiara Gnesi, 2016. "A Review of the Literature on Well-Being in Italy: A Human Development Perspective," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2-3), pages 170-192, August.
    16. Lela Tijanic, 2019. "Urban Paradoxes €“ The Other Side Of Urban Growth And Quality Of Life In European Cities," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 28(1), pages 309-328, june.
    17. Francesco Andreoli & Alessandra Michelangeli, 2014. "Welfare Measures to Assess Urban Quality of Life," Working Papers 278, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2014.
    18. Navarro, María & D'Agostino, Antonella & Neri, Laura, 2020. "The effect of urbanization on subjective well-being: Explaining cross-regional differences," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Katarzyna Przybyła & Maria Hełdak & Izabela Kurtyka-Marcak, 2019. "Demand for a Housing Offer Addressed to Senior Citizens in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-17, November.
    20. Gustavo Ahumada & Victor Iturra & Mauricio Sarrias, 2020. "We Do Not Have the Same Tastes! Evaluating Individual Heterogeneity in the Preferences for Amenities," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 53-74, January.
    21. Roberto Gallardo del Angel, 2017. "A Quality of Life Index of Mexican cities: An equalizing-difference approach," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Finanzas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, Enero-Jun.
    22. Colombo, Emilio & Stanca, Luca, 2014. "Measuring the monetary value of social relations: A hedonic approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 77-87.
    23. Dario Musolino & Wim Meester & Piet Pellenbarg, 2020. "The mental maps of Italian, German and Dutch entrepreneurs: a comparative perspective," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 64(3), pages 595-613, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    quality of life; hedonic prices; housing markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C4 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics
    • D5 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • P2 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies
    • P3 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions
    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis

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