A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life

Abstract

A growing number of cities around the world have established systems of monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective and subjective information and attempt to cover a wide variety of topics. This paper introduces a simple method that takes advantage of both types of information and provides criteria to identify and rank the issues of potential importance for urban dwellers. The method combines the so-called ‘hedonic price’ and ‘life satisfaction’ approaches to value public goods. Pilot case results for six Latin American cities are summarized and policy applications are discussed.

Citation

Lora, E.; Powell, A. A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life. UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, Finland (2011) 26 pp. ISBN 978-92-9230-375-4 [WIDER Working Paper No. 2011/12]

A New Way of Monitoring the Quality of Urban Life

Published 1 January 2011