Unhappy Cities

Abstract

There are persistent differences in self-reported subjective well-being across US metropolitan areas, and residents of declining cities appear less happy than others. Yet some people continue to move to these areas, and newer residents appear to be as unhappy as longer-term residents. While historical data on happiness are limited, the available facts suggest that cities that are now declining were also unhappy in their more prosperous past. These facts support the view that individuals do not maximize happiness alone but include it in the utility function along with other arguments. People may trade off happiness against other competing objectives.

Moving Towards Happiness?

“…The finding that both income and mean happiness are important determinants of migration is consistent both with the model by Glaeser et al. () in which well‐being is a component of the utility function and with the model by Grimes et al. () in which current income can be used to boost future utility, so that both current utility and current income affect location decisions.…”

“…Similarly, Glaeser et al. () find that unhappy cities in the US tend to decline in population, implying net outward migration from less happy cities to happier places. However, they also note that this process is very slow so that cities may remain unhappy for long periods.…”

“…In the formulation of Glaeser et al. (), for wages to be relevant to the migration decision as well as happiness, then happiness should be regarded as just one component of the utility function (rather than being equal to utility). In the formulation of Grimes et al.…”

Are urbanized areas source of life satisfaction? Evidence from EU regions

“…In current years, interest on spatial variations of well‐being (Ferrer‐i‐Carbonell and Gowdy ; Caporale et al ; Okulicz‐Kozaryn ; European Commission ; Lin et al ; OECD ; Ferrara and Nisticò ; Lagas et al ; Puntscher et al ) and the relationship between urbanization and life satisfaction is gaining momentum (Morrison ; Piper ; Tomaney ). The important role of geographic location is clearly demonstrated by Oswald and Wu () for US states, and persistent differences in life satisfaction over time and space have been found by Glaeser et al () in the US and Morrison () in New Zealand.…”

“…While this debate can be actually dated back to early contributions in urban studies (Wirth ), emphasizing the influence of urban life style on residents well‐being, its recent resurgence has been largely influenced by and framed within the notion of the so‐called Easterlin paradox (Easterlin , ; Florida et al ; Sørensen ; Glaeser et al ). The core of Easterlin's intuition is in that he admits the possibility of a tension between objective (economic) and subjective (self‐reported) well‐being, thus breaking the link between income and well‐being, at least in cross‐country comparisons.…”