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Is willingness to contribute for environmental protection in Sweden affected by social capital?

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  • George Marbuah

    (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of social capital in influencing individuals’ willingness to contribute to environmental protection in Sweden. Four indices of social capital comprising social trust, institutional trust, civic participation and a composite index comprising all considered elements of social capital were constructed to analyse their respective association with individual decisions to contribute. Using data from the environment module of the 2010 International Social Survey Programme, we empirically show that all four social capital parameters are significant and robust drivers of Swedish public’s willingness to contribute when the payment vehicles are increased higher prices or taxes or through lifestyle changes to protect the environment. Statistically, a significant association was observed for social trust and civic participation. Institutional trust is not significant when the payment vehicle is a reduction in the standard of living. Overall, however, the composite index of social capital is a robust predictor of likelihood to contribute irrespective of the payment vehicle.

Suggested Citation

  • George Marbuah, 2019. "Is willingness to contribute for environmental protection in Sweden affected by social capital?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(3), pages 451-475, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envpol:v:21:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10018-019-00238-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10018-019-00238-6
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mingwei Liu & Qingxiang Feng, 2021. "Does Social Capital Promote Garbage Classification? Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    3. Ni Putu Wiwin Setyari & Wayan Gita Ayu Kusuma, 2021. "Economics and Environmental Development: Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(4), pages 51-58.
    4. Robbe Geerts & Frédéric Vandermoere & Stijn Oosterlynck, 2020. "The Functionality of Dissimilarity: Pro-Environmental Behavior through Heterogenous Networks," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Abdul Nafeo Abdulai & Awal Abdul-Rahaman & Gazali Issahaku, 2021. "Adoption and diffusion of conservation agriculture technology in Zambia: the role of social and institutional networks," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 761-780, October.
    6. Joseph Anthony L. Reyes, 2021. "How Different Are the Nordics? Unravelling the Willingness to Make Economic Sacrifices for the Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-31, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Willingness to contribute; Social capital; Environmental protection; Ordered logistic regression; Sweden;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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