The quality of life in rural populations plays a key role in rural development policies. Starting from a capabilities approach, the aim of this work is to evaluate, with a simultaneous quantile regression, the heterogeneity of the determinants of quality of life by analyzing the opportunities addressed to rural populations. These opportunities are quantified as the availability of healthcare, education, economic opportunities, environmental conditions, human pressure, and the accessibility of the areas. The focus on capabilities represents a change from the prevailing setting, which tends to assess levels of well‐being by functioning as a proxy of capabilities. The results show that the availability of basic services, especially those used frequently, are essential elements for maintaining adequate levels of quality of life in rural areas.

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Unhealthy food choice is one of the main causes of being overweight. Nutritionists blame a particular category of food: junk food. Several authors have proposed a fat tax for reducing the junk food demand, but others have demonstrated that these taxes must be very high in order to be effective. Therefore, a warning label about calorie content may be an alternative way to reduce the consumption of junk food. In this exploratory study, using students as respondents, a high‐calorie warning label is explored with an incentive compatible valuation method. The results indicate that a high‐calorie warning label has little effect on respondents’ choices, even when they have no prior familiarity with the food.

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