Study on the impact of air pollution control on urban residents’ happiness from microscopic perspective

Abstract Air pollution not only affects residents’ work and life, but also affects residents’ health, which has negative effects on residents ‘subjective well-being. In order to improve air quality, the Chinese government is making vigorous efforts to control air pollution. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of air pollution control on urban residents’ happiness based on the micro-level survey data conducted in air pollution transmission channel cities. Firstly, the grounded theory is used to obtain the dimensions of the influence of government governance on residents. Then, the impact of these factors on residents’ happiness in the context of air pollution control is examined. The empirical results of our study indicates that: (a) living experience was the main factor affecting residents’ happiness, and order of effects through three ways on happiness are economic punishment for burning straw > uninterrupted sprinkler in city > prohibition of coal-fired heating; (b) the impact of green travel and public transportation pattern on residents’ happiness is not significant; (c) the positive impact of heating supply pattern on residents’ subjective well-being is mainly driven by people’s general acceptance of “coal to gas” policy; (d) the promotion influence of fiscal policy on residents’ subjective well-being is mainly achieved through subsidies for electric vehicles; (e) a good job security is one of the reasons for general improvement of residents’ subjective well-being in the process of air pollution control.