European Well-being Research Articles

Using EEA environment and health data to communicate with the public: the European Environment and Health Atlas

Abstract The EEA European Environment and Health Atlas presents information on how pollution and other environmental risks affect the health and well-being of Europeans. It is almost exclusively built on the datasets that the EEA collects from its network, and it summarizes only environmental information of relevance to public health, as well as health impacts from key environmental risks like air pollution, noise and industrial emissions.

Unemployment and Well-Being of Europeans Across the Life Cycle: The Role of Countries’ Macroeconomic Situation

Unemployment impairs individuals’ well-being and health and there is some empirical evidence showing that macroeconomic conditions can moderate these effects. This paper goes a step further and investigates differences in how macroeconomic indicators of European countries’ economic situation relate to individual subjective health and well-being, and also moderate the relationship between individual labour market exclusion and these outcomes across age groups: young individuals (aged 15–29), prime working age adults (aged 30–49, base category) and pre-retirement age adults (aged 50–64). We used two different macroeconomic indicators to define macroeconomic situation: country-level unemployment rate and gross domestic product (GDP). Both indicators were disaggregated into long-term economic trend and business cycle shocks using Hodrick–Prescott filtering to allow distinguishing between expected and unexpected change in macroeconomic circumstances. We used the European Social Survey individual-level data from 35 European countries for 2002–2014. Multi-level analysis with three levels were run for men and women separately. Results revealed differences in how individual-level unemployment related to well-being depending on the age group, with pre-retirement age group adults’ health and well-being suffering the most. Also, macroeconomic indicators were found to moderate the relationship between individual-level unemployment and subjective health and well-being with some noticeable differences between age groups, and with GDP trend having the most sizeable influence.

Sanitary Reforms in Hong Kong (Second Half of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20th Century)

Sanitary reforms in China began in parts of the country where European influence was strong. The British colony of Hong Kong was at the forefront of sanitary reforms, where the population naturally had to adapt to the difficult conditions of the climate, the burden of infectious diseases and constant overcrowding. By the early 1880s, the colony's growing Chinese population and disorderly housing development raised serious concerns among the European community that the presence of the Chinese posed a tangible threat to the health and well-being of Europeans in this part of East Asia. This sentiment prompted a series of sanitary reforms, catalyzed by the reports of colonial engineer Osbert Chadwick, a staunch advocate of sanitation and equal access to modern sanitary infrastructure. His reports of 1882 and 1902 set the course of sanitary reform in Hong Kong for the long term. They were also a response to the Hong Kong Chinese community's request for universal access to adequate methods of rainwater and domestic sewage disposal, as well as access to a more equitable water supply. Like all fast-growing global cities, Hong Kong's continued development was impossible without an extensive sanitation transformation program. It was advocated not only by the most far-sighted members of the colonial administration, but also by much of the colony's Chinese population.

Impact of Pandemic on European Well-Being: Visualizing Scenarios from the SHARE Database.

The objective of this study is to analyse the effect of a pandemic shock on the well-being of the European population aged 50 or over. Data comes from wave 7 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), carried out in 28 countries and representing over 170 million aged individuals in Europe. We start by designing two indicators in order to capture the risk of being unhealthy and economically vulnerable; next, we combine them with socio-demographic information and obtain the vulnerability profiles by means of the k-prototypes clustering algorithm. Subsequently, we design a shock similar to the COVID-19 pandemic and measure its effects on the vulnerability profiles. The results suggest that the average level of economic and health vulnerability is relatively low, although levels differ across European regions, with the most vulnerable being Eastern European countries. It was observed that the shock most affected countries with a greater proportion of individuals initially deemed vulnerable in terms of mental and physical health, as well as countries where tourism and retail sectors are the most vital for their economies. These findings led us to conclude that public policies should be differentiated by European regions, and Governments must establish action plans in order to better meet the physical and mental health needs of their citizens, as well as addressing monetary poverty and financial difficulties.

Brexit and the Free Movement of Persons: A Plea for National Legal Self-Assertiveness

National judges and Member State governments have an obligation to be assertive about national interests threatened by EU policies, even to the extent of challenging existing doctrines of law, proposing new interpretations, and insisting on the proper division of judicial functions, for they have particular knowledge and understanding of the consequence of EU law. An unquestioning obedience to the Court of Justice and to established doctrine is not loyalty, but subversion of an essential legal dialogue, and a failure to play an active and constructive role in building a legal system which serves the goals and wellbeing of Europeans. The Brexit debate is a case study in this: despite claiming publicly that mass migration was threatening essential and legitimate public interests, the UK did not attempt to use the available doctrines or derogations to defend these, behaving as if legal orthodoxy was fixed in stone, and the only options were leave or accept. It would have been more loyal, more European, more helpful to Europe, to impose unilateral restrictions and defend them vigorously with evidence and good arguments.

Методы измерения бедности в зарубежных странах и России: сравнительный анализ

Article contains the analysis of approaches to measurement of poverty in various foreign countries including as being members of the European Union, and isn’t present; it is told about possibility of loan of experience of measurement of poverty by the countries - not only members of the European Union. Article reveals interrelation of the program of the UN (PROON), concerning rating of the countries of the world on the level of human development with economic and social situation of the countries, one of which main directions is the standard of living (the gross national income per capita calculated at purchasing power). Level of wellbeing of the person is also defined with such indexes as: Index of a gender inequality, Index of multidimensional poverty, Index of a social and economic inequality. Following the results of 2013 Russia took the 57th place in a rating and treats the countries with a high level of development of human potential. In our country steady positive dynamics in all directions is noted. As for Europe, in article the opinion of experts on which to reduce quantity poor several times for only some years and even in the conditions of the proceeding financial and economic crisis is noted is extremely problematic. The greatest threat to wellbeing of Europeans is posed by so-called monetary poverty. The indicator of monetary poverty displays number of citizens which real income is lower than 60% of average value about the country. In Europe consider that such level of poverty guarantees a physiological survival. Actual experience of measurement and technologies of overcoming of poverty of such foreign countries as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Denmark and other countries is considered. In article importance of exchange of experience between the countries, as not entering into the European Union, and European Union member countries is emphasized; need of further improvement of techniques of measurement of poverty, development and improvement of indicators of poverty, and also technologies of its overcoming.