Journal article
Life satisfaction and the economic and social characteristics of neighbourhoods
Michael A Shields, Stephen Wheatley Price, Mark Wooden
JOURNAL OF POPULATION ECONOMICS | SPRINGER | Published : 2009
Abstract
This paper uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to investigate the association between neighbourhood effects and life satisfaction. We find that neighbourhood measures of social support and interaction and the absence of socio-economic deprivation are positively and significantly correlated with individual life satisfaction. Neighbourhood fixed effects, however, explain only an additional 1.5 to 2.5% of the variance in life satisfaction over the 14% explained by individual characteristics. © 2007 Springer-Verlag.