Knight K W et al (2010) The environmental efficiency of well-being - A cross-national analysis.pdf

Social Science Research xxx (2010) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Social Science Research
journal homepage: ate/ssresearch
The environmental efficiency of well-being: A cross-national analysis
⇑
Kyle W. Knight , Eugene A. Rosa
Department of Sociology, PO Box 644020, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4020, USA
article info abstract
Article history: Recent research has conceptualized sustainability as the environmental efficiency of well-
Received 8 May 2010 being (EWEB). This concept takes into account the benefits societies are able to produce
Available online xxxx from their demands on the environment. Research along these lines indicates that coun-
tries vary widely in the efficiency with which they transform the Earth’s resources into
Keywords: well-being. Here, we take up this finding as a puzzle to be explained. We construct a
Sustainability new measure of EWEB using the ecological footprint per capita (a measure of environmen-
Subjective well-being
tal consumption) and average life satisfaction (a measure of subjective well-being). We
Consumption
draw hypotheses from political economy, modernization, and sustainable consumption
Environmental sociology
Ecological footprint theories in the environmental social sciences. Using full information maximum likelihood
Life satisfaction estimation, we test the effects of climate, political, economic, and social factors on EWEB
with a sample of 105 countries. Key findings include a negative quadratic effect of eco-
nomic development on EWEB, a negative effect of e inequality, and a positive effect
of social capital.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Definitions of sustainability typically refer, implicitly or explicitly, to striking a balance between societal demands on the
environment and social well-being (of current and future generations). For instance, the influential 2005 Millennium Ecosys-
tem Assessment was titled Ecosystems