Role of Social Capital, Environment and Crime in Determining Life Satisfaction in India

Title

Role of Social Capital, Environment and Crime in Determining Life Satisfaction in India

Creator

Kumar, Neeraj; Varman, P. Mahendra

Description

Gross Domestic Product is a good indicator for examining the economic condition of any country, but it is an inappropriate indicator for evaluating an individual's well-being. This led to our research question: what determines people's life satisfaction or well-being in a diverse country like India? The present study examines the determinants of life satisfaction in India. To conduct this study, we analysed data from five waves of the World Values Survey spanning from 1990 to 2012, in conjunction with air and water pollution data sourced from various reports by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Specifically, the study examines the influence of Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) as indicators of air pollution and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) as a measure of water pollution. The impact of the socio-economic variable is as expected, like the positive impact of education, health status, social class, and marital status on life satisfaction. However, one of the paper's main objectives is to examine the effect of social capital, Environmental pollution and incidence of crime on life satisfaction. It has been found that both formal and informal social capital positively affect people's life satisfaction in India. The results show that people who are trustable and sociable are more satisfied than those who are neither. Environmental pollution, such as NO2 and BOD, adversely affects people's satisfaction. The incidence of crime has a significant and negative impact on life satisfaction, particularly among individuals who report higher levels of satisfaction. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Indian Econometric Society 2025.

Source

Journal of Quantitative Economics;Volume;24;Issue;1;pp.51-82

Date

01-01-2026

Publisher

Springer

Subject

Absolute Income; Generalised ordered probit; Income inequality; Life Satisfaction; Relative income; Subjective well-being

Coverage

Kumar N., Department of Economics, CHRIST (Deemed to Be University), Karnataka, Bangalore, 560029, India; Varman P.M., Department of Econometrics, University of Madras, Chennai, 600005, India

Rights

Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library

Relation

ISSN: 9711554;

Format

online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40953-025-00470-w

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011689189?origin=resultslist