Does City Size Affect Happiness?

Abstract

Several geographical factors influence the extent to which people appear to feel happy. This study examines city size in particular. In large cities, agglomeration economies occur, bringing benefits that can be characterized as one of three types, according to Glaeser and Gottlieb (2009). The first type emphasizes the gains from the reduced cost of moving goods across space, the second emphasizes labor-market pooling and the benefits of moving people across firms, and the third argues that cities speed up the flow of ideas, creating human capital at the individual level and facilitating innovation. However, there are also costs in large cities, such as commuting expenses and increasing land prices. Wirth (1938) has mentioned aspects of cost, such as size, density, and heterogeneity in big cities, or the consequences for social life, such as impersonality, isolation, and the decline of primary group membership.