Perception matters: How air pollution influences life satisfaction in China

Academic studies on environmental pollution have convincingly acknowledged the salient relevance of ambient pollutant emissions on individual life satisfaction. However, an understanding of how the different dimensions of air pollution influence public self-assessment of their living condition is required. This research investigates whether objective pollutant emissions and subjective evaluation influence individual life satisfaction. The findings were based on data from the China Environment Yearbook and China Social Survey in 2019. The multi-level linear regression model found that air pollutants emissions, including particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂), failed to explain the variations in public life satisfaction because of the lag effect of public perception. A significant nexus between perceived air pollution and public life satisfaction was observed at a significance level of 0.01. Specially, as the perceived air pollution by the public increased by one-point, life satisfaction decreased by 0.22 on a scale of 1-10, on average. Heterogeneous analysis based on income further suggested the salient negative effect of PM emissions on life satisfaction only occurred in the high-income group. The findings were robust after various methodological analyses. This study has theoretical implications for understanding the effects of air pollution on public subjective perception and provides guidance for how the government can manage the relationship between environmental governance and life satisfaction.