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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 7965

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sumit Agarwal

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Guest Editor

Finance, Economics and Real Estate, National University of Singapore and ABFER, Singapore 119245, Singapore
Interests: applied microeconomics; household finance; household sustainability; financial institutions; fintech; behavioral economics; political economy; real estate and urban economics; environmental economics; health economic; labor economics

Dr. Jian Zhang

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Guest Editor

Finance, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
Interests: household finance; household sustainability; behavioral finance; financial institutions; and corporate finance

Dr. Xin Zou

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Guest Editor

Finance, Hong Kong Baptist University, 224 Waterloo Rd, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Interests: household finance; household sustainability, digitization, E-commerce and FinTech; financial intermediaries; behavioral finance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Households make environmental, social, and financial choices and decisions on a day-to-day basis. Traditional economic models usually focus on maximizing problems within one unit and one lifecycle, ignoring the needs of other units and future generations. Household sustainability is a new research field that aims to understand how households make environmental, social, and financial choices, and the interactions and influences across these three dimensions, to maximize their current utility without hurting the utility of future generations. Within the existing economic frameworks, household sustainability considers two additional fundamental issues: (1) concerns for the long-term growth (for descendants), and (2) constraints placed on human societies.

Specifically, household environmental sustainability involves the household’s choices on environmental-related options and the impact of environmental issues on household decisions, for example, the household usage of utilities, choices of transportation mode, and consumption of food types. Household social sustainability focuses on social issues that influence the welfare of an entire group of the population across generations, such as the gender gap, woman’s education, minimum wage and employment protection, aging population and retirement safety, intergenerational and income inequality, health safety and security, terrorist attacks and pandemics, etc. Household financial sustainability mainly revolves around financial decisions that impact one’s ability to sustain future development, for example, mistakes in using financial products, consumption and savings decisions, non-optimal investment behaviors, behavioral biases, and methods to mitigate financial mistakes.

The Special Issue seeks research that provides insights on sustainable day-to day actions of households as well as factors underlying households’ choices. Both theoretical and empirical research papers related to the above topics are welcome. This Special Issue aims to offer a platform where all different topics may be presented to recompose the multi-faceted subject within the area of household sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Sumit Agarwal
Dr. Jian Zhang
Dr. Xin Zou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

household behavior
environment
sustainability
financial decision
social influence

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2090 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Air Pollution on Labor Supply in China

by Mingxuan Fan and Corbett Grainger

Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 13082; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713082 - 30 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 997

Abstract

A growing body of literature demonstrates that air pollution has negative impacts on human health, cognitive ability, and labor productivity, but little is known about the effect of chronic air pollution on labor supply decisions. We use restricted-access individual-level panel data from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS), paired with sub-district level remote-sensing estimates of air pollution, to evaluate the impact of chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) on an individual’s hours worked. We exploit within-individual changes in air pollution, and fixed effects estimates indicate that an increase of 1

μ

g/m

^{3}

in PM

_{2.5}

reduces an individual’s average hours worked by about 14 min per week. We then leverage the city-level roll-out of air pollution monitoring and information provision to test hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms. We show that individuals with poor health respond to changes in PM

_{2.5}

the most. For individuals who are environmentally unaware, this effect is mostly through an impact of pollution on health, while individuals who are environmentally aware engage in avoidance behavior. Finally, the roll-out of monitoring and information provision at the city level plays an important role in raising awareness and individuals’ responsiveness to pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Household Sustainability)

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15 pages, 2589 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Impact Assessment of Transitional Social Housing and Service Interventions for Low-Income Families: The Case of Hong Kong

by Siu-Ming Chan, Hung Wong, Yuen-Ki Tang and Shen-Nan Li

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12061; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512061 - 07 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2765

Abstract

Hong Kong is a typical global city with growing levels of substandard housing and a reduction in basic living quality. The government implemented a policy of transitional social housing (TSH) in 2018 to enhance the livelihood of low-income families. Nam Cheong 220 (NC220) is the first structural steel TSH project in Hong Kong. This study aims to evaluate the social impact and effectiveness of the project, and quantitative data were collected from individuals in three stages between 2020 and 2022. The first stage (T0) involved interviewing 106 successful applicants of NC220, followed by 91 participants in the second stage (T1) and 88 in the third stage (T2). Longitudinal analysis was implemented to scrutinize the changes observed over time, namely that the living area per capita substantially increased and housing expenses per capita decreased significantly due to residents’ relocation to NC220. Housing conditions and community problems also showed significant improvement. Living satisfaction, neighbour and family relationships also demonstrated positive changes. The most difficult issue for residents was finding suitable housing after staying at NC220. The findings reveal that the first TSH in Hong Kong as an intervention significantly improved the housing circumstances of residents. The social dimensions of housing for enhancing residents’ well-being is worth additional attention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Household Sustainability)

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16 pages, 504 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Capital and Household Economic Welfare: Do Entrepreneurship, Financial and Digital Literacy Matter?

by Putra Hilmi Prayitno, Sheerad Sahid and Muhammad Hussin

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16970; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416970 - 18 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2194

Abstract

Alleviating household economic fragility and poverty is a global challenge in achieving a nation’s well-being. This study aims to examine the impact of social capital and Indonesian household economic welfare, as well as understand the mediating role of entrepreneurial, digital, and financial literacy. To address this objective, a structural equation modeling partial least square was adopted to acquire comprehend findings. The survey data were gathered from households in East Java of Indonesia using a simple random sampling approach. The findings from this study highlight that social capital significantly influences several literacies of households in Indonesia, including digital literacy, financial literacy, and entrepreneurial literacy. However, this study failed to confirm the nexus between social capital and household economic welfare. In addition, financial literacy, digital literacy, and entrepreneurial literacy all play an important role in mediating the connection between social capital and the economic welfare of households. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Household Sustainability)

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16 pages, 943 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Social Media on the Ethnic Dynamics in Donations to Disaster Relief Efforts

by Deserina Sulaeman and Johan Sulaeman

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12305; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912305 - 27 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1160

Abstract

Efficient resource-sharing via private transfers among households during natural disasters serves to foster a more resilient society. This study explores the effect of social media on private donations from households to natural disaster relief efforts. The donation pattern in a popular charitable crowdfunding platform exhibits inter-ethnic dynamics: Campaigns initiated by Hispanic fundraisers receive disproportionately fewer donations and lower donation amounts from non-Hispanic donors, relative to Hispanic donors. Moreover, we document a novel finding that social media statements from a political figure (President Donald Trump) influence the dynamic of private transfers across households from different ethnic groups. This finding provides a salient consideration for policymakers and government officials regarding the effects of their actions on society’s resilience and sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Household Sustainability)

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