IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i20p8763-d1495912.html

Sustainable Consumption and Residents’ Happiness: An Empirical Analysis Based on the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2021)

Author

Listed:
  • Jinguang Guo

    (School of Public Administration, Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, Dalian 116021, China)

  • Chenglai Yang

    (School of Public Administration, Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, Dalian 116021, China)

Abstract

Sustainable consumption is a fundamental driver for implementing sustainable development strategies and is crucial in advancing Chinese-style modernization. Utilizing data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2021 (CGSS2021), this study examines the relationship between sustainable consumption and residents’ happiness, classifying its effects into growth and sustainability. The study results show that (1) sustainable consumption positively influences residents’ happiness. (2) Regionally, in the central and western regions, sustainable consumption significantly enhances residents’ happiness, with the sustainable effect surpassing the growth effect. In contrast, in the eastern region, sustainable consumption alone does not substantially improve residents’ happiness; instead, the growth effect predominates. (3) From an urban–rural perspective, sustainable consumption notably impacts happiness in rural areas. In contrast, urban areas primarily benefit from the growth effect of sustainable consumption, with the sustainable effect being less significant. (4) From an age-related perspective, different factors predominantly influence the happiness of various age groups. For young people, health plays a crucial role in their overall happiness. In contrast, middle-aged groups place more importance on their marital status, while older people are primarily concerned with housing conditions. (5) Income analysis shows that income increases substantially impact the happiness of high-income groups compared to low-income groups. Based on these insights, we recommend enhancing education and guidance on sustainable consumption, implementing regionally differentiated policies, increasing support for green consumption in rural areas, developing age-specific policies, and addressing income disparities. These measures can enhance the residents’ happiness more effectively and contribute to sustainable societal development.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinguang Guo & Chenglai Yang, 2024. "Sustainable Consumption and Residents’ Happiness: An Empirical Analysis Based on the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2021)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8763-:d:1495912
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8763/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8763/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jorge Alberto Vargas-Merino & Cristian Armando Rios-Lama & Miguel Humberto Panez-Bendezú, 2023. "Sustainable Consumption: Conceptualization and Characterization of the Complexity of “Being” a Sustainable Consumer—A Systematic Review of the Scientific Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Chau-Kiu Cheung & Kwan-Kwok Leung, 2004. "Forming Life Satisfaction among Different Social Groups during the Modernization of China," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 23-56, March.
    3. Yomna M. Sameer & Suzanna Elmassah & Charilaos Mertzanis & Lujain El‑Maghraby, 2021. "Correction to: Are Happier Nations More Responsible? Examining the Link Between Happiness and Sustainability," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 373-373, November.
    4. Jing Shao, 2019. "Sustainable consumption in China: New trends and research interests," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 1507-1517, December.
    5. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2003. "From preference to happiness: Towards a more complete welfare economics," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 20(2), pages 307-350, March.
    6. Yongsong Wu & Yang Cao, 2023. "Research on the Influence of Ecological Environment Satisfaction and Income Level on Chinese Residents’ Happiness: Empirical Analysis Based on CGSS Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Paul Frijters & John P. Haisken-DeNew & Michael A. Shields, 2004. "Money Does Matter! Evidence from Increasing Real Income and Life Satisfaction in East Germany Following Reunification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 730-740, June.
    8. M. Alloush & S. Wu, 2023. "Income Improves Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(2), pages 485-517.
    9. Easterlin, Richard A., 2023. "Why does happiness respond differently to an increase vs. decrease in income?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 200-204.
    10. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2005. "Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 997-1019, June.
    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. Azimjon Musamuxamedov & Dostonbek Eshpulatov & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2025. "The Role of Income, Happiness, and Norms in Fostering Pro-Social Behavior: A PLS-SEM Analysis of Charitable Giving and Its Contribution to Sustainable Development in Uzbekistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-25, October.

    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. Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2019. "Keeping up with or running away from the Joneses: the Barro model revisited," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 179-192, March.
    2. Michiel Slag & Martijn J. Burger & Ruut Veenhoven, 2019. "Did the Easterlin Paradox apply in South Korea between 1980 and 2015? A case study," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(4), pages 325-351, December.
    3. Paul Downward & Simona Rasciute, 2011. "An Economic Analysis of the Subjective Health and Well-being of Physical Activity," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Brad R. Humphreys (ed.), The Economics of Sport, Health and Happiness, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Georgellis, Yannis & Tsitsianis, Nicholas & Yin, Ya Ping, 2009. "Income and happiness across Europe: Do reference values matter?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 42-51, February.
    5. Senakpon F. A. Dedehouanou & Johan Swinnen & Miet Maertens, 2013. "Does Contracting Make Farmers Happy? Evidence from Senegal," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, pages 138-160, October.
    6. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier Bargain & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2017. "Home Sweet Home?: Macroeconomic Conditions in Home Countries and the Well-Being of Migrants," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(2), pages 351-373.
    7. Benno Torgler & Sascha L. Schmidt & Bruno S. Frey, 2006. "The Power of Positional Concerns: A Panel Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-19, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    8. Frijters, Paul & Beatton, Tony, 2012. "The mystery of the U-shaped relationship between happiness and age," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 525-542.
    9. Nguyen, Ha & Duncan, Alan, 2015. "Macroeconomic fluctuations in home countries and immigrants’ well-being: New evidence from Down Under," MPRA Paper 69593, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Feb 2016.
    10. Knies, Gundi, 2010. "Income comparisons among neighbours and life satisfaction in East and West Germany," ISER Working Paper Series 2010-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    11. Grosfeld, Irena & Senik, Claudia, 2008. "The Emerging Aversion to Inequality. Evidence from Poland 1992-2005," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0805, CEPREMAP.
    12. Bodo Knoll & Hans Pitlik, 2014. "Who Benefits from Big Government? A Life Satisfaction Approach. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 14," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47495, August.
    13. Gibbons, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2011. "School quality, child wellbeing and parents' satisfaction," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 312-331, April.
    14. Bussolo,Maurizio & Lebrand,Mathilde Sylvie Maria & Torre,Ivan, 2020. "Feeling Poor, Feeling Rich, or Feeling Middle-Class : An Empirical Investigation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9456, The World Bank.
    15. Nattavudh Powdthavee & Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Mark Wooden, 2013. "The Marginal Income Effect of Education on Happiness: Estimating the Direct and Indirect Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Well-Being in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n16, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    16. Stavros A. Drakopoulos, 2020. "Pay Level Comparisons in Job Satisfaction Research and Mainstream Economic Methodology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 825-842, March.
    17. Bahadır Dursun & Resul Cesur, 2016. "Transforming lives: the impact of compulsory schooling on hope and happiness," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 911-956, July.
    18. Filiz Gülal & Adam Ayaita, 2020. "The Impact of Minimum Wages on Well-Being: Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Germany," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(7), pages 2669-2692, October.
    19. Diriwaechter, Patric & Shvartsman, Elena, 2018. "The anticipation and adaptation effects of intra- and interpersonal wage changes on job satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 116-140.
    20. Christopher L Ambrey & Christopher M Fleming & Matthew Manning, 2013. "The life satisfaction approach to estimating the cost of crime: An individual's willingness-to-pay for crime reduction," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201301, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8763-:d:1495912. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.