Quality of life assessment: environmental aspects

Yelena V. Ryumina

Abstract


This article deals with the search for indicators that reflect the environmental conditions of life, environmental behavior of people and may be used in the economic analysis. This environmental and economic problem has not yet been solved. The indicators used in many economic papers to measure the emissions and discharges of harmful substances into the atmosphere and water bodies describe the impact on the environment, which will manifest itself in the future periods and cannot adequately reflect its condition. The monitoring of environment by environmental experts provides, in particular, the percentage indicators of air and water samples that exceed MPC (maximum permissible concentration) in the total number of samples. They are already included in a number of statistical compilations. The article describes their practicality and benefits for making the concise records of the state of environment in the economic research. The author has studied the regional values of selected indicators and analyzed various hypotheses of their strong differentiation. Today, it is particularly urgent to include the environmental component in the indicators describing the quality of life, including the human development index. The author proposes to use the percentage of negative water and air samples as an additional, fourth component of the human development index. The article presents the results of calculating the environmentally adjusted human development index for all entities of the Russian Federation, which in a number of regions significantly differs from traditionally used value.

Keywords


environmental indicators; environmental conditions; air and water samples; quality of life; quality of population; human development index; region; state of environment; environmental impact; pollution level

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ayres, R. U. & Kneese, A. V. (1969). Production, Consumption and Externalities. The American Economic Review, 3, 282–297.

Daly, H. (1968). On Economics as a Life Science. The Journal of Political Economy, 3, 392–406.

Forrester, J. W. (1971). World Dynamics. Cambridge, 142.

Leontief, W. (1970). Environmental Repercussions and the Economic Structure, an Input-Output Approach. Review of Economics and Statistics, 52, 262–271.

Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J. & Behrens, W. W. (1972). The Limits to Growth. A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York, 205.

Nool, R. G. & Trijonis, J. (1971). Mass Balance, General Equilibrium and Environmental Externalities. The American Economic Review, 4, 730–735.

Ryumia, Ye. V. (2014). Ekologicheskaya kharakteristika kachestva naseleniya [Ecological characteristic of the quality of population]. Ekonomika regiona [Economy of region], 3, 82–90.

Lokosov, V. V., Ryumina, Ye. V. & Ulyanov, V. V. (2015). Regionalnaya differentsiatsiya pokazataley chelovecheskogo potentsiala [Regional differentiation of human potential indicators]. Ekonomika regiona [Economy of Region], 4, 185–196.

Ryumina, E. V., & Anikina, A. M. (2007). Analyzing the Impact of the Natural Resources Factor on the Level of Economic Development of Russian Regions. Studies on Russian Economic Development, 5, 523–538.

Human Development Report 2013. The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. (2014). New York: UNDP, 2014, 216.

Human Development Report 2014: Sustaining Human Progress. Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience. (2014). New York: UNDP, 239.

Frolov, I. E. (Ed.). (1999). Chelovecheskiy potentsial: opyt kompleksnogo podkhoda [Human potential: experience of integrated approach]. Moscow: Editorial URSS Publ., 176.

Chelovecheskoye razvitie. Novoye izmerenie sotsialno-ekonomicheskogo progressa [Human development. New measurement of social and economic progress]. (2008). Moscow: Prava cheloveka Publ., 636.

Bobylev, S. N. (Ed.) (2013). Doklad o chelovecheskom razvitii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii 2013 «Ustoychivoye razvitie: vyzovy Rio» [Report on human development in the Russian Federation 2013 "A sustainable development: challenges for Rio"]. Moscow: RA ILF Publ., 202.

Grigoryev, L. M. & Bobylev, S. N. (2014). Doklad o chelovecheskom razvitii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii za 2014 god [The report on human development in the Russian Federation for 2014]. Moscow: Analiticheskiy tsentr pri Pravitelstve Rossiyskoy Federatsii Publ., 204.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/recon.2016.2.4.039

Copyright (c) 2018 Yelena V. Ryumina

Сertificate of registration media Эл № ФС77-80764 от 23.04.2021
Online ISSN 2412-0731