Quality of life in the economic and urban economic literature

Quality of life is increasingly becoming a concept researched empirically and theoretically
in the field of economics. In urban economics in particular, this increasing interest stems
mainly from the fact that quality of life affects urban competitiveness and urban growth:
research shows that when households and businesses decide where to locate, quality of
life considerations can play a very important role.
The purpose of the present paper is to examine the way economic literature and urban
economic literature in particular, have adopted quality of life considerations in the
economic thinking. Moreover, it presents the ways various studies have attempted to
capture the multidimensional nature of the concept, and quantify it for the purposes of
empirical research. Conclusions are drawn on the state of affairs regarding the study of
quality of life in economics, as well as the problems of measurement arising mainly from
the complex nature of the concept.