'This book provides a good summary of the issues involved and possible solutions to an important but very nebulous problem. It would be informative reading both to those active in political decision-making and to the academic economist. The methodologies employed require some knowledge of statistics and economic theory, though not beyond the advanced undergraduate level.' Choice

• Preface, Introduction, 1. Objective, Subjective, and Collective Dimensions of the Quality of Life, 2. Variations in the Quality of Urban Life Among Cities and Regions, 3. The Urban Disamenity Revisited, 4. Problems of Measuring the Quality of City Environments, 5. Local Government, the Property Tax, and the Quality of Life: Some Findings on Progressivity, 6. Justifiable Government Intervention in Preserving the Quality of Life, 7. The Quality of Life and the Limits of Cost-Benefit Analysis, 8. Property Values and the Benefits of Environmental Improvements: Theory and Measurement, 9. Estimating Access Values, 10. Neighborhood Externalities, Economic Clubs, and the Environment, 11. The Treatment of Externalities in National Income Statistics, 12. Conceptions of the Quality of Life in Theory and Practice, 13. Toward a New Civic Calculus, 14. Measuring the Quality of Life of the Elderly, 15. Reflections on the Quality of Working Life