Is more always better? The nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and wellbeing.
详细信息
- 作者：Vaughan Winfrey ; Elise Marie.
- 学历：Master
- 年：2013
- 导师：Thomas,Adam T.,eadvisor
- 毕业院校：Georgetown University
- Department：Public Policy & Policy Management.
- ISBN：9781303045028
- CBH：1536322
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：3025979
- Pages：54
文摘
Policymakers today face rapidly expanding world populations,increasing evidence of environmental degradation and climate change,and mounting economic crises. In this context,they are grappling with the challenge of balancing environmental concerns,economic viability,and the wellbeing of their citizens. Because energy consumption has both positive and negative wellbeing implications,it is unclear whether societal goals to raise standards of living through energy-intensive lifestyles conflict with the social,economic,environmental,and health dimensions of broader wellbeing aspirations. Though there has been a significant amount of research on the long-run environmental consequences of increasing aggregate world energy demand,there is a lack of direct evidence on the relationship between energy consumption and wellbeing. This paper attempts to improve our understanding of the net wellbeing consequences of energy consumption. Specifically,it examines whether there is a nonlinear relationship between per capita energy consumption,as measured alternatively by CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita),electricity consumption (kWh per capita),and total energy consumption (kg of oil equivalent per capita),and wellbeing,as measured by individual life satisfaction aggregated at the country level. Panel and cross-sectional regression analyses are conducted using data from the Gallup World Poll (GWP),integrated European and World Values Surveys (WVS-EVS),and the World Bank DataBank (WBDB). Despite the classic economic assumption that more is always better,this analysis indicates that increasing energy consumption is not always associated with wellbeing improvements. The empirical results provide some suggestive evidence that life satisfaction gains associated with energy consumption may eventually be counterbalanced by the related human and environmental costs. This is valuable information for policymakers trying to balance environmental,energy-security,and citizen-wellbeing concerns.