Morrison P. S. Local expressions of subjective well-being: the New Zealand experience, Regional Studies. Students of regional science have been preoccupied with economic drivers while at the same time implicitly assuming that increasing urban size and density raises local well-being. However, the geography of happiness may not mirror the geography of growth. Rather, there is a localization to the paradox of affluence mainly because raising population density in order to realize agglomeration economies can lower subjective well-being. This paper offers empirical support for this proposition by estimating city fixed-effects for three separate measures of subjective well-being while controlling for the characteristics of individuals as well as their perceptions of accessibility and social capital. Morrison P. S. Des témoignages locaux du bien-être subjectif: l'expérience néo-zélandaise, Regional Studies. Les étudiants de la science régionale ont été préoccupés par des forces motrices économiques en supposant implicitement et simultanément qu'une augmentation de la taille et de la densité urbaines améliore le bien-être local. Cependant, il se peut que la géographie du bonheur ne se reflète pas dans la géographie de la croissance. Il existe plutôt une localisation du paradoxe de l'abondance, essentiellement parce que l'augmentation de la densité de la population dans le but de réaliser des économies d'agglomération peut finir par une baisse du bien-être subjectif. Cet article cherche à fournir du soutien empirique en faveur de cette affirmation en estimant des effets fixes relatifs aux grandes villes employant trois mesures distinctes du bien-être subjectif, tout en tenant compte des caractéristiques des individus ainsi que de leurs perceptions de l'accessibilité et du capital social. Bien-être subjectif Bonheur Satisfaction Qualité de la vie Grandes villes Nouvelle-Zélande Morrison P. S. Lokale Ausdrucksformen von subjektivem Wohlbefinden: die Erfahrung von Neuseeland, Regional Studies. Beim Studium der Regionalwissenschaft wird vor allem auf wirtschaftliche Faktoren geachtet, während zugleich implizit angenommen wird, dass sich durch eine Steigerung der Stadtgröße und -dichte das Wohlbefinden der Menschen vor Ort erhöht. Die Geografie des Glücks ist jedoch nicht unbedingt ein Abbild der Geografie des Wachstums. Vielmehr liegt eine Lokalisierung des Wohlstandsparadoxons vor, insbesondere weil eine Erhöhung der Bevölkerungsdichte mit dem Ziel der Verwirklichung von Agglomerationswirtschaften zu einer Verringerung des subjektiven Wohlbefindens führen kann. Dieser Beitrag bietet empirische Belege für diese These in Form einer Schätzung der städtischen Fixeffekte auf drei separate Maßstäbe des subjektiven Wohlbefindens unter Berücksichtigung der Merkmale der Personen sowie ihrer Einschätzung hinsichtlich der Erreichbarkeit und des Sozialkapitals. Subjektives Wohlbefinden Glück Zufriedenheit Lebensqualität Städte Neuseeland Morrison P. S. Expresiones locales del bienestar subjetivo: la experiencia de Nueva Zelanda, Regional Studies. En los estudios de ciencia regional se presta atención a los impulsores económicos mientras que, al mismo tiempo, se supone implícitamente que al aumentar el tamaño y la densidad de las ciudades mejora el bienestar a nivel local. Sin embargo, la geografía de la felicidad no necesariamente refleja la geografía del crecimiento. Más bien existe una localización de la paradoja de la riqueza sobre todo porque al aumentar la densidad de la población para desarrollar las economías de aglomeración puede disminuir el bienestar subjetivo. En este artículo ofrecemos un apoyo empírico a esta proposición calculando los efectos fijos metropolitanos para tres mediciones por separado del bienestar subjetivo, controlando a la vez las características de los individuos así como sus percepciones de accesibilidad y capital social. Bienestar subjetivo Felicidad Satisfacción Calidad de vida Ciudades Nueva Zelanda

Human values, subjective well-being and the metropolitan region. Regional Studies. Living in a country’s largest metropolitan centre has a negative effect on subjective well-being. Although documented in many developed economies, the reasons for this particular geography of well-being are still poorly understood. Meanwhile a separate body of research has shown that the holding of extrinsic or personally focused values is also associated with lower levels of subjective well-being. This paper demonstrates the link between the two. It draws on the European Social Survey (ESS) 2012 to show how metropolitan residents in Finland are more likely to hold extrinsic values such as power and achievement.

This paper demonstrates that residential locations observed at one point in time influence socio-spatial mobility and hence neighbourhood outcomes arising from residential mobility. Using a unique survey of migration within New Zealand, it illustrates the classic result that repeated observations regress towards the mean. According to this statistical property, those leaving the most and least deprived areas are observed moving up and down towards the mean level of neighbourhood quality. After addressing this statistical effect, it is shown that those leaving very deprived areas are less likely to upgrade their neighbourhood, particularly if they also report relatively low incomes. By contrast, the downward adjustment observed by those leaving areas of low deprivation approximate those expected on the basis of regression towards the mean.

Two quite distinct views on how metropolitan labour markets work have co-existed for over three decades. Both claim empirical support and, after a brief period of confrontation, they continue to co-exist today giving quite conflicting signals to policy-makers. According to the first model, the urban labour market consists of a number of spatially defined sub-markets so that local unemployment exists primarily because of deficiencies in highly localised demand for labour. By this argument, unemployment rates remain high in the absence of a renewed supply of appropriate jobs within short commuting distances of the jobless. The solution according to this model is to attract private- and public-sector production into such areas. In contrast, a second model views the city as a single market in which transactions between labour and capital take place regardless of the location of residence and employment sites. According to this perspective, the spatial incidence of unemployment simply reflects the residential clustering effects of a housing market reacting to an unequal income distribution. Demand for labour may still be deficient, but only at the aggregate, metropolitan-wide level. According to this model, creating jobs for labour in particular parts of the conurbation in order to reduce unemployment in certain neighbourhoods will only have a temporary, short-term effect at best. The apparent conflicts between the policy implications drawn from these segmented and seamless models of the urban labour market arise out of a failure to recognise explicitly the marked differences that exist in the ability of different levels of human capital to adjust. Both models have relevance, but to different categories of labour. As soon as the implicit assumption of homogeneous labour is relaxed, the simultaneous presence of spatially seamless and segmented markets becomes a source of insight rather than conflict and their role in policy discussion becomes more transparent. The research challenge lies in achieving a better understanding of the scope and practice of adjustment of individuals with different skills together with the way the urban markets as a whole adjust.

In 1993 major reforms to the delivery of housing assistance in New Zealand came into effect. These included the introduction of an Accommodation Supplement to provide income assistance for housing, the establishment of Housing New Zealand Limited to market former state houses and the setting up of the Ministry of Housing to provide policy advice. These reforms have replaced an explicitly spatial public policy based on the provision of housing stock in particular locations with an apparently aspatial housing policy based on income supplements,. The former state housing construction and allocation programme, however, has generated residential location patterns which continue to constrain and predetermine the choices made by those contemporary households who now draw income supplements. Far from spatially diffusing rental demand, these recent housing reforms show every sign of further concentrating demand and supply of low rental housing and reinforcing the inherited, highly segmented social geography of the New Zealand city.