A key goal for society as a whole is the pursuit of well-being, which leads to the happiness of its individual members; as such, it is of critical socioeconomic relevance. In this regard, it is ...important to study which factors primarily affect the happiness of the population. In principle, these factors are associated with income level and residential and job stability, or more specifically, citizens' quality of life. This research, which is based on a multidimensional concept of quality of life, uses a regression model to explain the dependence of Spaniards' happiness on the well-being or quality of life provided by their work, their family situation, their income level and aspects of their place of residence, among other factors. The data were collected through an anonymous survey administered to a representative sample of Spanish citizens. The methodology used approaches the intangible concept of happiness as resulting from different individual and social causes selected from dimensions addressed in the literature, and calculates their effects or importance through regression coefficients. One of the findings is that people with the highest level of well-being or quality of life in the most important dimensions mostly claim to be happy. With respect to gender, it has a significant influence on the dimensions included in the model of citizen happiness and on personal issues. It is also shown that the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic negatively influenced the quality of life of Spanish citizens and therefore their happiness.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Technological development has profoundly marked the evolution of the economy. The constant changes brought about by scientific and technological advances have been decisive in the transition from an ...analogue to a digital world. In this context, the impact of the fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0) manifests itself in many ways. Environmental impact is one of these. The energy sector has been evolving and changing just like the economy and society. Therefore, a study of this sector, and of the other related elements, is of interest to better understand the 4.0 concept. The promotion of sustainability at both the political and social levels has led to changes in different areas, such as the productive vision, the use of green energies, and the implementation of green taxes. Energy as a key factor in Industry 4.0 involves studying it both quantitatively and qualitatively. This is to understand the lights and shadows that the concept currently presents. Therefore, this work aims to bring the reality of the energy sector closer to reality, both in its positive and negative aspects, considering the main factors of incidence, to show the strengths and weaknesses that can be deduced.
•The paper classifies and reviews popular city indices.•The paper proposes a novel methodology to measure intangible capital as the growth capacity of knowledge cities.•The paper applies the proposed ...methodology in the European context.
Knowledge cities are the most capable of producing sustainable economic growth. Cities, where relationships between people are more extensive, provide the most natural environment in which to look for evidence of the knowledge spillovers so emphasized by the endogenous growth theory. The intellectual capital approach considers the ability to transform knowledge and intangible resources into sustainable long-term wealth. The approach does not only contemplate sustainability and social wellbeing, but also intangible factors such as human development, economic structure, trade, image and innovation. This paper proposes a novel methodology to measure intangible capital as the growth capacity of knowledge cities based on intellectual capital using a composite index of seven intangible factors, disaggregated into 19 dimensions with 73 different indicators. Using this methodology, we rank 158 European cities for which information is available. The results show clear differences between northern and southern European cities. The top positions in the ranking are occupied by cities with a favorable balance in human capital; the most important growth factors in the most developed cities being research, development and innovation and image components, whilst these together with the human components are the most important growth factors in the poorest cities.
•We review the concept and measurements of quality of life.•We analyse the relationships between quality of life and ICTs.•Use of new technologies and technological capacity are key in the citizens' ...development.•There is a clear relationship between technology and quality of life in European regions.•The digital citizen is happier and values living in regions with high technological capacity.
Quality of life is a key element in the sustainable development of countries, regions and cities. However, due to the difficulties involved in measuring it, there are no clear criteria as to which aspects of the economy should be enhanced in order to improve life conditions. In this respect, just as in the past literacy enabled human development and integration, these days, the use of new technologies and technological capacity are key elements that facilitate citizens' development. In this study, we use the information available in the Flash Eurobarometer 419 and Eurostat data on Information and Communications Technology to analyse the factors that Europeans consider key to achieving a better quality of life. We can thus see how the use of new technologies and technological capacity influence these factors. This analysis has been carried out at the highest level of disaggregation possible given the available information, and includes a total of 79 European NUTS 2 regions. The results reveal a clear relationship between technology and quality of life; the digital citizen is happier and values living in regions/cities with technological capacity, which invest in R&D, and which are committed to achieving sustainable growth.
The evaluation of the work performance of health professionals has focused the interest of scientific research in recent decades as a basis for improving the quality of health services. The global ...COVID-19 pandemic has pushed countries’ health systems to the limit and had previously unknown consequences on the job performance of health professionals. In this context, what are the determinants of performance? There are numerous studies that link job performance with other variables that directly affect it, such as leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work environment. However, there are no studies that jointly relate all these variables, and even less in the field of health. The main objective of this work is to analyse how these variables are configured together to generate a good level of performance of health professionals during the times of COVID-19. To do this, a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is carried out, an appropriate method that will allow finding the joint causal effects of key variables in human resources to ensure a good level of job performance in health organizations. The study reveals that leadership and commitment are the two key drivers of performance. The data confirm that the “recipe” to achieve a good level of performance consists of the combination of leadership, commitment, and a good work environment. Additionally, in the case of less satisfied workers, linking leadership and commitment is a sufficient condition.
In the information society, ICT (Information and Communications Technology) use and capability are regarded as keys to economic growth. Use of these ICTs depends on the access and ability of ...citizens, while capability primarily depends on government investment in Research and Development (R&D) and the degree of development of technology-related sectors.
Using information society and science and technology statistics for NUTS 2 statistical regions from the Eurostat database, we construct two synthetic indices for cities based on ICT use and capability, and these are used to group the cities into clusters. We then study the relationship between the ICT indices and economic development, taking wealth and intellectual capital as a measurement of knowledge-based European cities. The results show that both factors, use and capability, are significant but particularly so regarding investment in R&D and the development of ICT sectors.
•We relate the components proposed by López et al. (2014) in their knowledge based development index with the main dimensions of a Smart City.•We propose two ttechnological efficiency indices for the use and capability in ICT.•We analyse the influence of two factors related with the use and capability in ICT on the different dimension of a Smart City.•The results allow us to corroborate that these factors clearly influence economic development.•The most important factor is the capability factor with a clear influence over human and image capital, and the use factor on environmental capital.
Following the serious health situation in Spain and around the world in 2020 and 2021 stemming from COVID-19, this paper examines how the most vulnerable groups (in social and health terms) in ...Spanish society suffered the worst impacts on their quality of life during the pandemic. The review of the literature and publications released by the health authorities highlight the high number of cases of illness and death due to COVID-19; however, there are no studies about how it has affected aspects of citizens’ daily lives, considering some of their sociodemographic characteristics such as age and gender. A key issue when measuring citizens’ quality of life is that we typically see a U-shaped curve by age group, where young people register the highest shares along with the elderly; nevertheless, the pandemic has clearly brought about a change in this regard. In this study, we corroborate this finding, along with the psychological issues underlying this fact in young people and the physical ones in the elderly. To do so, we use an ANOVA and regression analysis with data from a sample of 908 Spanish citizens belonging to different age groups. These data were collected through an online survey distributed throughout Spain, mostly by email and social media, between 15 February and 15 April 2021 with a margin of error of 3.25% and a confidence level of 95%. Furthermore, the analysis allowed us to determine how aspects of daily life—family situation, living conditions, social environment, employment and financial situation—have been negatively affected during the pandemic, clearly depending on the age of the people surveyed, pushing them towards social and health vulnerability.
Urban sustainability is a key factor that must be considered at the local level, however, there are few studies that consider sustainability using the triple bottom line approach and apply it to a ...large number of cities. In this paper, we develop a sustainability city index based on the triple bottom line using an intellectual capital approach that attempts to solve the negative aspects identified in the main indices proposed in the existing literature, such as the use of: subjective weightings, an arithmetic average or index that is not comparable. Here, we have used information available in the Urban Audit database for 2009. The results for 158 cities in 24 European countries show that the cities with the best positions are in the northern European countries. German cities occupied the best positions in the three dimensions of sustainability, albeit with a slightly worse performance in the social dimension. Moreover, the proposal index is consistent, without redundancy among the variables considered in the three dimensions.
Happiness is a very important aspect in the life and well-being of all citizens; as such, it has become a key factor in personal preferences. For these reasons, it is relevant to study what factors ...principally affect the happiness of the population. However, the difficulties involved in measuring this concept mean that there are no clear criteria as to which aspects should be promoted in order for citizens to achieve greater happiness. This paper uses variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM)—partial least squares path modelling (PLS)—to analyse the direct and indirect effects of European citizens’ assessment of different aspects of their city related to safety, environmental quality and urban planning on their happiness. The source of information used in this study is the Flash Eurobarometer 419 prepared by Eurostat in 2015, with a total of 9799 observations. The results show how quality of life, safety, the environment and city planning have a positive and significant influence on European citizens’ happiness, especially safety. In addition, quality of life acts as a mediating variable, primarily increasing the influence of urban planning on happiness. The findings of the study point to the relevant policies that governments should undertake to ensure the happiness of their citizens.
The quality of life of citizens in a city is related to the sustainable decisions made by their leaders. By using principal component analysis (PCA) and taking an intellectual capital perspective ...(all sources of knowledge in human, relational and structural areas), we explore which of the three dimensions used to measure the sustainability of a city—economic, social or environmental—has the greatest effect on a subjective measurement of quality of life. We propose an econometric model based on a tangible production model to study the relationship between the quality of life and sustainability. To that end, we perform an in-depth examination of the different effects on the four dimensions that comprise the measure of the subjective quality of life: satisfaction, mobility, integration and public service. The results of the estimated model of citizens’ quality of life confirm the existence of a direct relationship for the 52 European cities under study; however, the least relevant role is played by the environmental dimension, which is still unappreciated by citizens. Conversely, the economic and social dimension are found to be determinants in all cases, except for social integration. Therefore, a key requirement of the management aimed at achieving sustainable development in European cities is to activate the environmental dimension.
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