Analysis of factors determining the quality of life: The evaluation of pros and cons of urbanization

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03493
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic policy
• Research Institution: Konan University
• Principal Investigator: Ishikawa Noriko (伊藤路子) 甲南大学, 経済学部, 教授 (10379464)
• Research Collaborator: 福重 元嗣 大阪大学, 大学院経済学研究科 ; Kourtit Karima KTH Royal Institute of Technology ; Gheasi Masood VU Amsterdam, Department of Spatial Economics ; Nijkamp Peter VU Amsterdam, Netherlands and Tinbergen Institute, Department of Spatial Economics
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: Quality of life / 都市化 / 地域間格差 / 指標化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the effects of urbanization on people’s QoL (Quality of life). We construct the theoretical model, which specifies the individual, social, and regional factors that determine QoL and select the most appropriate model using inter-regional or inter-national data. The results have shown that the urban/rural dichotomy seems to be inadequate to examine “contextual” effects on people’s QoL because of the existence of intra-urban and intra-rural heterogeneity. We also note that the preference for moving to a new house/community would also one of the good predictors of QoL although objective and subjective health outcomes, such as self-rated health and morbidity, are always used as proxies for QoL. Moreover, we clarify that the QoL is statistically and significantly related to individual characteristics (in particular, age) as well as region-specific environment (e.g., accessibility to medical facilities, safety, and living costs).

Free Research Field

都市経済学