Satisfaction with the Place of Residence: the Importance of Environmental Factors

Research team: Dr. Orr Karassin, Dr. Shula Goulden

 About the Research:

In a reality of a new public administration in which many authorities treat residents as customers, residents' satisfaction can be used as an indicator for managers in the process of formulating work plans and allocating resources to handle various local aspects.

Identifying the factors that are associated with residential satisfaction, in personal, physical, economic, cultural, social or environmental aspects, may provide municipal managers with an insights on the tastes and preferences of their residents, and divert attention to issues that require better management and investment to improve residents' satisfaction.

The study seeks to examine the relationship between satisfaction with the place of residence and personal, physical, social and environmental parameters. We examine these in a multivariate model to explore the relative importance different factors. The research uses a subjective parameter of satisfaction with the place of residence while controlling for background variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, religiosity, socioeconomic standing, and the size of the municipality.  Explanatory variables combine variables relating to urban transport infrastructures, urban quality of environment, social cohesion and sense of security. Relative importance of explanatory variables are explores as well as differences between ethnic and religious groups.  

The study relies on a large representative sample of over 7000 respondents. The source of the data is the CBS social survey for the years 2014 and 2021. 



 The Research Team:

  Dr. Orr Karassin

Head of the Environmental and Sustainability Research Center, the Open University of Israel

Dr. Karassin is a senior lecturer and environmental policy researcher with industry experience in theoretical and applied, quantitative and qualitative research. Her research deals with a variety of environmental policy issues, local, state and international. Among other things, she has published books and articles dealing with In environmental enforcement and regulation, circular economy waste and materials, corporate sustainability and climate change.

 Dr. Shula Goulden

Senior Research in the Environmental and Sustainability Research Center, the Open University of Israel

Dr. Shula Goulden is a senior research fellow at the Environmental and Sustainability Research Center, the Open University of Israel and an affiliated lecturer at the School of Sustainability at Reichman University. She holds a degree in geography from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in environmental policy from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Ben Gurion University in Israel, where she studied the emergence of environmental policy for sustainable construction.


 Research Report:

 Research Video:

 Research Seminar:

Full lecture in English at Porter School of Environmental Studies Tel Aviv University research seminar

 In the Media:

"What is really important to the residents in the local elections?"

Interview with Dr. Orr Karassin on the program "Opening the Day", Channel 13, 26.2.2024

"How good it is that you came back home?"

Interview with Dr. Orr Karassin from the podcast "Three Who Know", Kan 11, 27.2.2024.