In response to the threat posed by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the UK prime minister announced on the 23rd of March strict lockdowns and introduced a new way of living and working, at least temporarily. This included working from home (WHF) wherever possible. Many experts from the IT industry were long arguing about the potential for WFH, which suddenly now became indisputable. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of WFH on the individuals’ perception about their future financial situation and their mental well-being. We apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) combined with the UKHLS COVID-19 survey conducted in April 2020. Our findings suggest that those who have not experienced a shift from working at the employer’s premises to WFH became more concerned about their future financial situation. However, we find that WFH has a negative impact on mental well-being. On the other hand, we find no difference in the mental well-being when we consider those who work from home on occasion. The findings of this study have policy implications for government, firms and health practitioners. In particular, a balance between WFH and at the employer’s premises may provide both financial security and maintain the mental and psychological well-being at satisfying levels.

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Environmental quality is an important determinant of individuals’ well-being and one of the main concerns of the governments is the improvement on air quality and the protection of public health. This is especially the case of sensitive demographic groups, such as the old aged people. However, the question this study attempts to answer is how do individuals value the effects on the environment. The study explores the effects of old and early public pension schemes, as well as the impact of air pollution on health status of retired citizens. The empirical analysis relies on detailed micro-level data derived from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). As proxies for health, we use the general health status and the Eurod mental health indicator. We examine two air pollutants: the sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ground-level ozone (O3). Next, we calculate the marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) which shows how much the people are willing to pay for improvement in air quality. We apply various quantitative techniques and approaches, including the fixed effects ordinary least squares (OLS) and the fixed effects instrumental variables (IV) approach. The last approach is applied to reduce the endogeneity problem coming from possible reverse causality between the air pollution, pensions and the health outcomes. For robustness check, we apply also a structural equation modelling (SEM) which is proper when the outcomes are latent variables. Based on our favoured IV estimates and the health status, we find that the MWTP values for one unit decrease in SO2 and O3 are respectively €221 and €88 per year. The respective MWTP values using the Eurod measure are €155 and €68. Overall, improvement of health status implies reduction in health expenditures, and in previous literature, ageing has been traditionally considered the most important determinant. However, this study shows that health lifestyle and socio-economic status, such as education and marital status, are more important, and furthermore, air pollution cannot be ignored in the agenda of policy makers.

Long-standing challenges concerning unemployment and the role of government have been the dominant underlying themes in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Effective State-Business Relations (SBRs) comprise a set of highly responsive and public interactions between the state and the business sector. The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics of net job creation rates in Egypt and Turkey, and the role of the SBRs, including various firm characteristics. The analysis relies on firm-level data derived from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys over the period 2008–2013. We implement the weighted ordinary least squares (OLS). Furthermore, we apply an Instrumental Variables (IV) Approach and the Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method for robustness check, to deal with the potential endogeneity issues coming from the self-reported statements and the possible degree of reverse causality between SBRs and the main outcomes of interest. Our findings suggest four major obstacles to SBRs, with constraints of access to finance and credit and political instability being the common major obstacles in the two countries explored. Corruption and lack of proper infrastructure in electricity in Egypt are found to be the next two main obstacles in SBRs, while tax rates and competition from the informal sector are identified as the other two main obstacles in Turkey. The results show that obstacles in SBRs contribute negatively to the net job creation. According to these findings, policy implications include the need to make SBRs operate more efficiently, investments on proper infrastructure and policies that minimize corruption and political instability.

The UK government has decided to implement lockdown measures at the end of March 2020 as a response to the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a consequence, households have experienced job losses and a significant drop in their finances. During these unprecedented and difficult times, people provide financial assistance to those who are in need and have to cope with falls in their living standards. In this study we are interested to investigate the subjective well-being, which is expressed by mental health and components of general happiness, of the givers rather than of receivers. We apply a difference-in-differences framework to investigate the impact of altruism on the givers’ SWB in the UK. Altruism is denoted by transfers made to adult children, parents, siblings, and friends. Using the DiD estimator and the estimated coefficient of the household income we calculate the implicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for altruism. We perform various regressions by gender and racial-ethnic background using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). The analysis shows that altruistic behaviours impact different domains of SWB between men and women, as well as, among people with different racial-ethnic background.

This study explores the causal effects of air pollution, income support, housing benefits and household income on the subjective mental well-being in United Kingdom (UK). Additionally, the analysis considers the effects of air pollution and weather conditions. The estimates are based on data from the British Household Panel Survey. The results show that those who are unemployed or who have a low income and who claim the benefits report higher levels of mental well-being than those who do not claim them. Moreover, the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for an improvement on air quality are lower in the case of the Bayesian Network. * The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, suggestions and constructive comments that greatly contributed to the improvement of the quality of this paper. Any remaining errors or omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.

This study examines the determinants of health status in Turkey. Moreover, this is the first study up to date that explores the indoor air pollution as an additional factor of health. The analysis relies on detailed micro-level data derived by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) Cross Sectional Income and Living Conditions Survey over the years 2006-2012. Using Pseudo-Panel Data, an Adapted Probit Fixed Effects Model is applied to control for time invariant characteristics of the regions, thereby eliminating potentially large sources of bias. Furthermore, the Random-Effects Ordered Logit Model is applied for robustness check. Various determinants, including individual and household characteristics, such as socio-economic status, are examined. The findings show that income and education are the most important socio-economic determinants of health followed by the marital and employment status. Furthermore, estimations for the type of fuel used for heating in dwelling as a proxy for indoor air pollution show that individuals that use natural gas and electricity report higher levels of health outcomes compared to those who use wood and coal. Overall, the findings point out the importance of policies on the education reconstruction, income distribution, clean environment, improvement of health status and reduction of health inequalities.

The first aim of this study is to investigate the role of the EU Blue Card programme implemented in 2012 in Germany. In particular, we aim to explore the impact on the participation in cultural activities of first-generation non-European Union (EU) and non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrants, such as attendance to cinema, concerts and theatre. The second aim is to examine the impact of cultural activities on subjective well-being (SWB), measured by life satisfaction. We compare the cultural participation and life satisfaction between the treatment group that is the non-EU/EEA first-generation immigrants and the control group that consists, not only of natives and second-generation immigrants but also composes of EU/EEA first-generation immigrants who are not eligible to the programme. We will apply a sharp and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) within a seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) system using the Ordered Probit method. The empirical analysis relies on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) survey over the period 2015–2018. The results show that the treated subjects experience an increase in cultural participation activities and an improvement in their SWB, as a result of the EU Blue Card programme, compared to the control group. Participation in classical music performance, opera or theatre influences more the SWB compared to other cultural activities. Policies that promote labour market integration and participation in cultural activities will enable immigrants to integrate into the social norms of the host societies and improve their SWB.