Abstract
Today’s society appears prosperous, but it faces the challenges of unbalanced development due to climate change, economic growth, social equality, and a growing gap between the rich and the poor. A good government can help people and enterprises continue to progress and develop sustainably in the country and at the same time make the people happy. Therefore, the ruling party’s governance should not only take into account the issue of efficiency, but also consider the needs and feelings of the people. Based on the three dimensions of society, economy, and environment in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations, using the three parallel network Dynamic Directional Distance Function, and considering the interdependent network structure composed of interrelated sub-units, this research evaluates and analyzes the government efficiency and public satisfaction efficiency of local governments in 22 counties and cities in Taiwan from 2016 to 2019 as well as the correlation between public evaluation and governance effectiveness. The empirical results show from the performance of government efficiency of county and city governments in Taiwan that there are large differences in economic and environmental aspects, but small differences in social aspects. The correlation coefficients of the social, economic, and environmental efficiencies are all positive, but the correlation coefficients of public satisfaction efficiency with these same three aspects are all negatively correlated. These results show first that local governments should review the inefficient aspects to improve their resource allocation. Second, they reflect the network characteristics that society, economy, and environment are linked and complement each other, which follow the need for sustainable development by the United Nations after taking into account social, economic, and environmental factors. Third, the performance of government efficiency is not reflected in the public satisfaction rate, and the satisfaction of the people is a subjective rather than an objective decision of local government efficiency. Therefore, to achieve the goal of improving efficiency and happiness, local governments must also understand the expectations of the people.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ala-Mantila, S., Heinonen, J., Junnila, S., & Saarsalmi, P. (2018). Spatial nature of urban well-being. Regional Studies, 52(7), 959–973.
Andrews, F. M. (1974). Social indicators of perceived life quality. Social Indicators Research, 1(3), 279–299.
Banker, R. D., Charnes, A., & Cooper, W. W. (1984). Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis. Management Science, 30(9), 1078–1092.
Bartolini, S., & Sarracino, F. (2014). Happy for how long? How social capital and economic growth relate to happiness over time? Ecological Economics, 108, 242–256.
Binder, M. (2014). Subjective well-being capabilities: Bridging the gap between the capability approach and subjective well-being research. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(5), 1197–1217.
Bogetoft, P., Färe, R., Grosskopf, S., Hayes, K., & Taylor, L. (2009). Dynamic network DEA : An illustration. Journal of the Operations Research Society of Japan, 52(2) ,147-162.
Bonasia, M., De Simone, E., D’Uva, M., & Napolitano, O. (2022). Environmental protection and happiness: A long-run relationship in Europe. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 93, 106704.
Cao, X. J. (2016). How does neighborhood design affect life satisfaction? Evidence from Twin Cities. Travel Behaviour and Society, 5, 68–76.
Castelli, L., Pesenti, R., & Ukovich, W. (2004). DEA-like models for the efficiency evaluation of hierarchically structured units. European Journal of Operational Research, 154(2), 465-476.
Chang, P. J., Song, R., & Lin, Y. (2019). Air pollution as a moderator in the association between leisure activities and well-being in urban China. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(8), 2401–2430.
Charnes, A., Cooper, W. W., & Rhodes, E. (1978). Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. European Journal of Operational Research, 2(6), 429–444.
Chatterjee, S., Khorana, S., & Kizgin, H. (2021). Harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence to foster citizens’ satisfaction: an empirical study on India. Government Information Quarterly, 39(4), 101621.
Chen, C. M. (2009). A network-DEA model with new efficiency measures to incorporate the dynamic effect in production networks. European Journal of Operational Research, 194(3), 687–699.
Chen, P. C., Yu, M. M., Chang, C. C., Hsu, S. H., & Managi, S. (2015). The enhanced Russell-based directional distance measure with undesirable outputs: Numerical example considering CO2 emissions. Omega, 53, 30-40.
Chiu, Y. H., Huang, K. Y., Lin, T. Y., & Chang, T. H. (2022). Government debt and fiscal execution efficiency. Managerial and Decision Economics, 43(1), 111–128.
Ciziceno, M., & Pizzuto, P. (2022). life satisfaction and tax morale: the role of trust in government and cultural orientation. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 97, 101824.
Cloutier, S., Jambeck, J., & Scott, N. (2014). The Sustainable Neighborhoods for Happiness Index (SNHI): A metric for assessing a community’s sustainability and potential influence on happiness. Ecological Indicators, 40, 147–152.
Costanza, R., Fisher, B., Ali, S., Beer, C., Bond, L., Boumans, R., & Snapp, R. (2007). Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being. Ecological Economics, 61(2–3), 267–276.
Danish, M. H., & Nawaz, S. M. N. (2022). Does institutional trust and governance matter for multidimensional well-being? Insights from Pakistan. World Development Perspectives, 25, 100369.
De Guimarães, J. C. F., Severo, E. A., Júnior, L. A. F., Da Costa, W. P. L. B., & Salmoria, F. T. (2020). Governance and quality of life in smart cities: Towards sustainable development goals. Journal of Cleaner Production, 253, 119926.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (2000). Culture and Subjective Well-Being : Measuring Subjective Well-being to Compare the Quality of Life of Cultures. The MIT Press.
Diener, E. (2009). Subjective well-being. The Science of Well-Being, 37, 11–58.
Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(19), 11176–11183.
Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. Nations and households in economic growth, pp. 89–125.
Färe, R., Grosskopf, S., Norris, M., & Zhang, Z. (1994). Productivity growth, technical progress, and efficiency change in industrialized countries. The American economic review, pp. 66–83.
Färe, R., & Grosskopf, S. (1996). Productivity and intermediate products: A frontier approach. Economics Letters, 50(1), 65–70.
Färe, R., & Grosskopf, S. (2000). Network DEA. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 34, 35–49.
Farrell, M. J. (1957). The measurement of productive efficiency. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (general), 120(3), 253–281.
Färe, R., & Grosskopf, S. (2010). Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency. European Journal of Operational Research, 200(1), 320-322.
Feng, Y., Zhang, H., Chiu, Y. H., & Chang, T. H. (2021). Innovation efficiency and the impact of the institutional quality: A cross-country analysis using the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network DEA model. Scientometrics, 126(4), 3091–3129.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2013). The happiness of cities. Regional Studies, 47(4), 613–627.
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2010). Happiness and economics. Princeton University Press.
Graafland, J., & Compen, B. (2015). Economic freedom and life satisfaction: Mediation by income per capita and generalized trust. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(3), 789–810.
Headey, B., & Muffels, R. (2018). A theory of life satisfaction dynamics: Stability, change and volatility in 25-year life trajectories in Germany. Social Indicators Research, 140(2), 837–866.
Hofer, J., Kerpen, E., Busch, H., Lehmann, M., & Menon, A. (2022). The Implicit Affiliation Motive, Evaluations of Social Life Events, and Life Satisfaction: Findings from a Cross-Cultural Study with German and Zambian Adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies, pp. 1–17.
Hogan, M. J., Leyden, K. M., Conway, R., Goldberg, A., Walsh, D., & McKenna-Plumley, P. E. (2016). Happiness and health across the lifespan in five major cities: The impact of place and government performance. Social Science and Medicine, 162, 168–176.
Iannello, P., Sorgente, A., Lanz, M., & Antonietti, A. (2021). Financial well-being and its relationship with subjective and psychological well-being among emerging adults: Testing the moderating effect of individual differences. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(3), 1385–1411.
Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (1999). Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.
Kao, C. (2009). Efficiency decomposition in network data envelopment analysis: A relational model. European Journal of Operational Research, 192(3), 949–962.
Kao, C., & Hwang, S. N. (2010). Efficiency measurement for network systems: IT impact on firm performance. Decision Support Systems, 48(3), 437–446.
Kao, C. (2017). Network Data Envelopment Analysis. The Springer Press.
Kelly, J. M. (2003). Citizen satisfaction and administrative performance measures: Is there really a link? Urban Affairs Review, 38(6), 855–866.
Kent, J. L., & Thompson, S. (2014). The three domains of urban planning for health and well-being. Journal of Planning Literature, 29(3), 239–256.
Kubiszewski, I., Zakariyya, N., & Costanza, R. (2018). Objective and subjective indicators of life satisfaction in Australia: How well do people perceive what supports a good life? Ecological Economics, 154, 361–372.
Leyden, K. M., Goldberg, A., & Michelbach, P. (2011). Understanding the pursuit of happiness in ten major cities. Urban Affairs Review, 47(6), 861–888.
Lu, L. C., Chiu, S. Y., Chiu, Y. H., & Chang, T. H. (2022). Sustainability efficiency of climate change and global disasters based on greenhouse gas emissions from the parallel production sectors–A modified dynamic parallel three-stage network DEA model. Journal of Environmental Management, 317, 115401.
Markussen, T., Fibæk, M., Tarp, F., & Tuan, N. D. A. (2018). The happy farmer: Self-employment and subjective well-being in rural Vietnam. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(6), 1613–1636.
Martin, L. L., & Kettner, P. M. (1996). Measuring the performance of human service programs (71). Sage.
Miller, T. I., & Miller, M. A. (1992). Assessing excellence poorly: The bottom line in local government. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 11(4), 612–623.
Mizobuchi, H. (2017). Measuring socio-economic factors and sensitivity of happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(2), 463–504.
Mouratidis, K. (2019). Compact city, urban sprawl, and subjective well-being. Cities, 92, 261–272.
Mouratidis, K. (2021). Urban planning and quality of life: A review of pathways linking the built environment to subjective well-being. Cities, 115, 103229.
Mouratidis, K., & Yiannakou, A. (2022). What makes cities livable? Determinants of neighborhood satisfaction and neighborhood happiness in different contexts. Land Use Policy, 112, 105855.
Navarro, M., & Sánchez, A. (2022). Changes in subjective well-being over time: Economic and social resources do matter. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(5), 2009–2038.
Obydenkova, A. V., & Salahodjaev, R. (2017). Government size, intelligence and life satisfaction. Intelligence, 61, 85–91.
OECD (2011). Life framework. https://www.oecd.org/development/mdcr/howslife/
Omri, A., Omri, H., Slimani, S., & Belaid, F. (2022). Environmental degradation and life satisfaction: Do governance and renewable energy matter? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 175, 121375.
Ouyang, W., & Yang, J. B. (2020). The network energy and environment efficiency analysis of 27 OECD countries: A multiplicative network DEA model. Energy, 197, 117161.
Pak, T. Y. (2020). Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly. Journal of Policy Modeling, 42(2), 349–366.
Park, H., & Blenkinsopp, J. (2011). The roles of transparency and trust in the relationship between corruption and citizen satisfaction. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 77(2), 254–274.
Park, K. S., & Park, K. (2009). Measurement of multiperiod aggregative efficiency. European Journal of Operational Research, 193(2), 567–580.
Park, Y., Kim, M., & Seong, K. (2021). Happy neighborhoods: Investigating neighborhood conditions and sentiments of a shrinking city with Twitter data. Growth and Change, 52(1), 539–566.
Pfeiffer, D., & Cloutier, S. (2016). Planning for happy neighborhoods. Journal of the American Planning Association, 82(3), 267–279.
Porumbescu, G. A. (2017). Does transparency improve citizens’ perceptions of government performance? Evidence from Seoul. South Korea. Administration & Society, 49(3), 443–468.
Qu, H. (2022). Differential associations between volunteering and subjective well-being by labor force status: An investigation of experiential and evaluative well-being using time use data. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(4), 1737–1770.
Recher, V. (2022). History matters: Life satisfaction in transition countries. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(1), 171–193.
Rossouw, S., & Pacheco, G. (2012). Measuring non-economic quality of life on a sub-national level: A case study of New Zealand. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(3), 439–454.
Salim, M., Peng, X., Almaktary, S., & Karmoshi, S. (2017). The impact of citizen satisfaction with government performance on public trust in the government: Empirical evidence from urban Yemen. Open Journal of Business and Management, 5(02), 348.
Seiford, L. M. (1996). Data envelopment analysis: The evolution of the state of the art (1978–1995). Journal of Productivity Analysis, 7(2), 99–137.
Sirgy, M. J., Lee, D. J., Park, S., Joshanloo, M., & Kim, M. (2020). Work–family spillover and subjective well-being: The moderating role of coping strategies. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(8), 2909–2929.
Somarriba Arechavala, N., Zarzosa Espina, P., & López Pastor, A. T. (2022). The importance of the neighbourhood environment and social capital for happiness in a vulnerable district: The case of the Pajarillos district in Spain. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(5), 1941–1965.
Stutzer, A., & Frey, S. (2010). Recent advances in the economics of individual subjective well-being. Social Research, 77(2), 679–714.
Sueyoshi, T., & Sekitani, K. (2005). Returns to scale in dynamic DEA. European Journal of Operational Research, 161(2), 536-544.
Sun, S., & Huang, C. (2021). Energy structure evaluation and optimization in BRICS: A dynamic analysis based on a slack based measurement DEA with undesirable outputs. Energy, 216, 119251.
Swindell, D., & Kelly, J. M. (2000). Linking citizen satisfaction data to performance measures: A preliminary evaluation. Public Performance & Management Review, pp. 30–52.
Tone, K. (2001). A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 130(3), 498–509.
Tone, K., & Tsutsui, M. (2010). Dynamic DEA: A slacks-based measure approach. Omega, 38(3–4), 145–156.
Tone, K., & Tsutsui, M. (2014). Dynamic DEA with network structure: A slacks-based measure approach. Omega, 42(1), 124–131.
Tone, K., Kweh, Q. L., Lu, W. M., & Ting, I. W. K. (2019). Modeling investments in the dynamic network performance of insurance companies. Omega, 88, 237-247.
Tran, T. Q., Nguyen, C. V., Van, Vu., & H. (2018). Does economic inequality affect the quality of life of older people in rural Vietnam? Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(3), 781–799.
Tsurumi, T., Yamaguchi, R., Kagohashi, K., & Managi, S. (2021). Correction to: Are cognitive, affective, and Eudaimonic dimensions of subjective well-being differently related to consumption? evidence from Japan. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(6), 2523–2523.
Van Ryzin, G. G. (2004). Expectations, performance, and citizen satisfaction with urban services. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23(3), 433–448.
Van Ryzin, G. G., & Immerwahr, S. (2007). Importance-performance analysis of citizen satisfaction surveys. Public Administration, 85(1), 215–226.
Welch, E. W., Hinnant, C. C., & Moon, M. J. (2005). Linking citizen satisfaction with e-government and trust in government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15(3), 371–391.
Wong, C. (2001). The relationship between quality of life and local economic development: An empirical study of local authority areas in England. Cities, 18(1), 25–32.
Wu, J., Li, M., Zhu, Q., Zhou, Z., & Liang, L. (2019). Energy and environmental efficiency measurement of China’s industrial sectors: A DEA model with non-homogeneous inputs and outputs. Energy Economics, 78, 468–480.
Zeng, W., Xiang, L., & Zhang, W. (2020). Evaluation of life quality and its spatial mismatch with local economic development in large Chinese cities. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15(1), 239–258.
Zhang, J., Cheng, M., Wei, X., Gong, X., & Zhang, S. (2019). Internet use and the satisfaction with governmental environmental protection: Evidence from China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 212, 1025–1035.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, YC., Chiu, YH., Chang, TH. et al. Sustainable Development, Government Efficiency, and People’s Happiness. J Happiness Stud 24, 1549–1578 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00658-y
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00658-y