Sarah L. Stafford () (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)
Abstract
I examine how regulatory pressures, financial constraints, student pressures, and stakeholder influences affect the adoption of sustainable practices by institutions of higher education (IHEs). Using data from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, I conduct an ordered probit analysis on 167 IHEs located in the U.S. In addition to analyzing overall sustainability, I examine the factors that drive particular types of sustainability initiatives. The results show that stakeholders such as faculty, alumni, and the surrounding community play the most important and consistent role in promoting sustainable practices of all types. However, I find that the significance of other factors varies considerably across different categories of sustainable practices. For example, while an institution’s endowment is positively related to its adoption of sustainable practices in general, it does not have a significant effect in most of the specific areas analyzed. Surprisingly, student preferences and regulatory pressures play a very limited role for all categories.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, College of William and Mary in its series Working Papers with number
77.
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