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Sustainability and wellbeing: the dynamic relationship between subjective wellbeing and sustainability indicators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2021

Mubashir Qasim  and
Arthur Grimes Open the ORCID record for Arthur Grimes [Opens in a new window]
Mubashir Qasim
Affiliation:
School of Accounting, Finance and Economics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Arthur Grimes*
Affiliation:
Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington, New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington School of Government, Wellington, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: arthur.grimes@motu.org.nz
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Abstract

We analyse the relationship between individuals' subjective wellbeing (SWB) and measures of their country's sustainability. SWB data are sourced from the World Values Survey; sustainability is measured by ecological footprint (EF) and by components of the World Bank's adjusted net savings (ANS) series. ANS, a measure of weak sustainability, represents changes in a country's capital stock including financial, physical, human and natural capital. We show that an increase in strong sustainability, measured by EF and by ANS's natural capital component, is associated with reductions in SWB over the next decade followed by a rebound in SWB over the subsequent decade. We show also that the perfect substitutability assumptions on which ANS is calculated do not hold. Our findings highlight an important political challenge: governments that run sustainable policies may decrease the near-term wellbeing of citizens. This can reduce government's short-term popularity even though the improved sustainability may raise future wellbeing.

Keywords

adjusted net savingsecological footprintsubjective wellbeingsustainabilityD91H75Q01Q56
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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