Does happiness data say urban parks are worth it?

Urban planners emphasize that urban nature plays an important role in providing social and psychological benefits to urban dwellers. Particularly, it provides space not only for the improvement of public health, but also for social interaction and community cohesion. However, less scientific attention has been paid to the effects of urban parks on the subjective well-being of urban dwellers who live in high density cities. In this study, we examine the relationship between individual subjective well-being and urban parks with individual survey data for self-reported happiness in Seoul. We obtain longitudinal Seoul Survey Data (SSD) conducted by the Seoul government between 2005 and 2015, and employ pooled cross-section data analysis with location-specific and time-specific fixed-effects to estimate the effects of urban parks on the subjective well-being of urban dwellers. In addition, we estimate the monetary value of urban parks using the average marginal rate of substitution between urban parks and household income. Our findings show that urban parks are associated with residents’ subjective well-being. Specifically, on average, an individual household has an implicit willingness-to-pay of approximately 129,300 won (approximately 110 U.S. dollar) in monthly household income for a 100 m² increase in urban parks. High-income residents’ willingness-to-pay is approximately seventeen times more than that of low-income residents. Seniors also have more willingness-to-pay for urban parks.