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Background Several studies have demonstrated that self-rated health status is affected by socioeconomic variables. However, there is little knowledge about whether perceived economic resources affect people’s health. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between self-rated health status and different measures of income. Specifically, the effect of both objective income and perceived economic resources are estimated for a very large sample of households in Italy. By estimating this relationship, this paper aims at filling the previously mentioned gap. Methods The data used are from the 2015 European Health Interview Survey and were collected using information from approximately 16,000 households in 562 Italian municipalities. Ordinary and generalized ordered probit models were used in estimating the effects of a set of covariates, among others measures of income, on the self-rated health status. Results The results suggest that the subjective income, measured by the perceived economic resources, affects the probability of reporting a higher self-rate health status more than objective income. The results also indicate that other variables, such as age, educational level, presence/absence of chronic disease, and employment status, affect self-rated health more significantly than objective income. It is also found that males report more frequently higher rating than females. Conclusions Our analysis demonstrates that perceived income affects significantly self-rated health. While self-perceived economic resources have been used to assess economic well-being and satisfaction, they can also be used to assess stress levels and related health outcomes. Our findings suggest that low subjective income adversely affects subjective health. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between effects of income and individuals’ perceptions of their economic resources or overall financial situation on their health. From a gender perspective, our results show that females are less likely to have high rating than males. However, as females perceive an improved economic situation, on the margin, the likelihood of a higher self-rated health increases compared to males.

International audienceA solar thermal and heat pump combisystem is one of many system alternatives on the market for supplying domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating (SH) in dwellings. In this study a reference solar thermal and air source heat pump combisystem was defined and modelled based on products available on the market. Based on the results of an extensive literature survey, several system variations were investigated to show the influence of heat pump cycle, thermal storage and system integration on the use of electricity for two houses in the climates of Zurich and Carcassonne. A singular economic cash flow analysis was carried out and the " additional investment limit " of each system variation was determined for a range of economic boundary conditions. This is the maximum extra investment cost for the system variant compared to the reference system that will give a break even result for a 10 year period. The results shows that variations in electricity price affects the additional investment limit far more than the other economic parameters. Several of the variants show potential for achieving a cost benefit, but the potential varies a lot depending on load and climate boundary conditions. For all variants, the biggest difference in electricity savings was found for Zurich rather than in Carcassonne, which is explained by the larger heating load. However, in three cases the largest savings were for the SFH45 house despite the fact that the annual electricity use of the system is much lower than that for the SFH100 house, 358

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the emissions of CO 2 in Italy during 1861 to 2002. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is applied to explore the relationship between CO 2 emission and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. An Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) is also applied to investigate changes in emissions between 1990 to 2002. Several factors contribute to change in the emission of CO 2 . These factors generally include a scale effect, a technological effect and a composition effect. Design/methodology/approach -The main discussion in the paper is about the exiting of EKC in Italy and how a decomposition analysis can be used to look behind the time series of the environmental accounts.Findings -The findings in the paper indicate the typical inverted "U" form of EKC is not confirmed with our data set for Italy. According our econometric results, there is a positive relationship between economic growth and CO 2 ; following the trend, the maximum emission of CO 2 per capita in Italy would be reached when the GDP per capita will be about 26900 US$ (turning point). Basically, two major forces have determined the increase of CO 2 pollution in Italy over time: eco-efficiency (pollution per monetary unit of output) and volume effect (volume growth of Value Added). Practical implications -The decomposition method performed in this paper allows us to analyse which sectors are responsible for CO 2 emissions and quantify the magnitude of the theoretical factors expected to influence the emission. The method used for the decomposition analysis can also be applied by countries with lack of time series Input-Output data. Originality/value -The investigation in the paper of the existing of EKC allows to know at which level of income the CO 2 emissions will start decreasing in Italy. The analysis is based on a long time series (141 years). Decomposition analysis can be considered a tool, which helps to detect whether the increase of CO 2 is mainly due to economic growth or technological change.