Anna Norin (p), Per Wikberg

The Swedish regional authorities have in joint cooperation with the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth developed a system of statistical indicators for quality of life and sustainability. The system is based on the conceptual model developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, in their Better Life and How’s Life in Your Region indices for wellbeing. The conceptual model includes indicators measuring the present quality of life in Swedish municipalities as well as measuring the caretaking today of the four capitals for the benefit of future generations, i e sustainability. The quality of life is summarized in twelve different themes with 26 indicators and sustainability is summarized in four themes with 33 indicators corresponding to the four forms of capital (natural, economic, human and social). The model has been applied to a Swedish context with spatial focus being on the municipal level. The present paper presents the initial testing of the indicator system based on the scores for all municipalities in Sweden on the indicators in the BRP+ system in year 2015. The aim is to further the development of the system of indicators to better capture the quality of life and sustainability of Swedish municipalities. The indicator model was first tested in a Confirmatory Factor Analysis using a Structural Equation Modeling approach. However, obtained fit indices from the analysis were insufficient to confirm the model even if some of the modification indices were implemented. Consequently, a subsequent explorative approach was used in order to find ways to further develop the model. Based on inputs from a Principal Component Analysis of the indicators, a somewhat restructured model was outlined and tested in a second Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Obtained regressions weights and modification indices was used to formulate hypotheses regarding further development of the BRP+ system.

Kirill Malov (p)

Russia is a very big country with more thousand cities and towns. Each of them has the features and appeal. To estimate «socially wellbeing», if the residents are satisfied with life and what the main reasons of discontent – main goals of this research.
Based on system approach to the city as the difficult social and economic system, the methods used in various scientific directions are integrated into a uniform research complex: application of mathematical methods in regional economy and sociology, creation of conceptual models, statistical and sociological methods of a collection of information. To lay the information base of a research of the Russian cities representing a combination of the statistical and sociological data characterizing and a social and economic situation in the cities and perception by its residents.
Among the main date of the base was the question about the pleasant (like) live in the municipality. Through the relation to the place of residence it is possible to judge if the residents are satisfied with their location and if is it attractive to accommodation. Such «Life satisfaction in the city» (LSC) became the central category of the first part of a research. Economic indicators (for example, the Cost of living index in the city) became also essential addition, that explained some reasons of dissatisfaction.
In total sociological and economic data of 101 main Russian cities (100000 and more inhabitants) were available to the analysis. 16 value total score of the main problems in the city (their existence according to the respondent), satisfaction of own salary and the Cost of living index (CLI) index in the city were selected.
Constructing regression model by reduction of the least significant predictors (stepwise regression) 5 main predictors was revealed: CLI, impurity of the environment, inaccessibility of the services in the sphere of medical attendance; general improvement, problems with road condition.
More attentive studying of concrete municipalities, their group and a ratio with the main predictors (indicators) became the following stage of the research. The group of objects was made by means of the faster cluster analysis on 5 groups.
Comparing average values on the revealed significant indicators we can see the tendency– decrease in the average level LSC with a growth of significant indicators. Increase in the CLI index, quantity dissatisfied of ecological situation, availability of medicine, level of improvement and road problems leads to decrease in the general level of LSC.

Ryuta Mori (p), Kazunori Nakajima, Naoki Sakamoto, Eiji Ohno, Masafumi Morisugi

Happiness survey aims at clarifying determinants of subjective degree of happiness. In this survey, we prepare about subjective degree of happiness and some attribute questions (household income level, individual preference and customs, and so on). In recent years, the happiness index has been drawing attention internationally, and its knowledge is accumulating in each country. Based on the data obtained by the happiness survey, some of studies has been made to estimate the degree of the relative risk aversion representing the attitude toward people's risk. They suggest that the economic evaluation of various mortality risks can be carried out based on the happiness survey.
First, we conducted the happiness survey that we set many items which may have an influence on individual's happiness. In addition, we conducted the internet-based survey in March 2016, which was targeted for the several thousand adults of both sexes (ages 20-69) living in japan. Second, we estimated parameters by applying ordered response model to the data obtained from this survey. Finally, we tried to measure the value of a statistical life (VSL) by multi-attribute based on the estimation result of these parameter.
The findings in this study are as follows;
Case of single attribute (when measured by age): VSL rose in direct proportion to age until 50s, but turned to a decrease in 60s.
Case of multi-attribute (when measured with other attributes taken into account in addition to age): Although the estimated value of VSL increased or decreased, the same tendency as the case of single attribute was shown. However, some of them (e.g., smoking habit) showed a different tendency from the case of single attributes.

Tal Modai-snir (p), Maarten van Ham

Neighbourhood socioeconomic change is a complex phenomenon which is driven by multiple processes and factors. Most theoretical and empirical work has focused on the role of urban internal dynamics in generating them such as filtering, social dynamics and political-organizational processes. These generate flows of different socioeconomic strata between neighbourhoods, which consequently decline and increase on the expense of each other and exchange relative positions in the metropolitan hierarchy (‘exchange’ effect). Neighbourhoods are also affected by structural processes that operate beyond the urban level. These processes can generate upward or downward shifts of absolute income across a whole array of neighbourhoods (‘growth’ effect), or change the dispersion of the distribution of neighbourhood incomes (‘dispersion’ effect).
A common practice in neighbourhood change studies is to represent neighbourhood status as relative to the respective metropolitan area. This practice leaves out the ‘growth’ effect, but captures the ‘dispersion’ effect. Consequently, these measures exclude an important source of divergence between neighbourhoods across places and also confound the ‘exchange’ and ‘dispersion’ effects. This precludes a comprehensive depiction of neighbourhood change processes and limits the comparative perspective. The confusion of the ‘exchange’ and ‘dispersion’ effects results in the inconsistency of research designs with theoretical models; in studies that aim at examining urban life-cycle models, the ‘dispersion’ effect might attenuate or intensify the typical mean-reversion pattern. From a policy point of view, accounting for the role of structural effects in generating socioeconomic decline or increase can support the rejection of place-based policies in favour of broader policy actions.
The objective of this paper is to introduce an approach that would enable to: (1) acknowledge the role of structural processes in neighbourhood change, and (2) make a proper distinction between the processes that generate neighbourhood change. The approach applies a decomposition presented by Van Kerm (2004) in the context of income mobility which enables quantifying the relative roles of each component of change. The application is illustrated in an empirical study of neighbourhood change in the metropolitan area of Tel-Aviv, Israel. It shows that during the research period structural processes had a larger effect on neighbourhood socioeconomic conditions than exchange processes, and particularly the growth of incomes.