Relationships among haze pollution, commuting behavior and life satisfaction: A quasi-longitudinal analysis.

• This study examines the impacts of commuting behavior, haze pollution and its changes on life satisfaction. • Active commuters have higher life satisfaction while commuters using public transit have lower life satisfaction. • Long commuting time leads to losses in life satisfaction. • Haze pollution mitigates the negative impacts of public transit, but strengthens losses induced by commuting time. The effects of air pollution and commuting behavior on life satisfaction have received increasing research interests. However, the literature pays scant attention to haze pollution and its moderating effects on the relationship between commuting behavior and life satisfaction. Using two-round of cross-sectional survey data across 92 Chinese cities, this paper analyzes the impacts of haze pollution and commuting behavior on life satisfaction, and the moderating effects of haze pollution on the link between commuting behavior and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that haze pollution and its changes are important triggers of life satisfaction. Moreover, the effects of changes in haze pollution correlate with basic haze pollution levels. Active commuters report higher life satisfaction, while transit commuters report lower life satisfaction. Longer commutes cause losses in life satisfaction. Additionally, haze pollution mitigates the losses in life satisfaction for commuters using public transit, but strengthens the negative effect of commuting time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]