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Risk Perception of Climate Change: Empirical Evidence for Germany

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  • Simora, Michael
  • Frondel, Manuel
  • Sommer, Stephan

Abstract

The perception of risks accruing from climate change is a key factor for individual adaptation and prevention behavior, as well as for the willingness to support climate policy measures. Using a generalized ordered logit approach and drawing on a large data set originating from two surveys among more than 6,000 German households, respectively, we analyze the determinants of the perception of the personal risk that is due to heat waves, storms, and floods. We focus on the role of (damage) experience and objective risk measures for these natural hazards, whose frequency is likely to be affected by climate change. In line with the received literature, our results suggest that the personal experience with adverse events, most notably experienced personal damage, is a strong determinant of individual risk perception.

Suggested Citation

  • Simora, Michael & Frondel, Manuel & Sommer, Stephan, 2016. "Risk Perception of Climate Change: Empirical Evidence for Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145742, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145742
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    Cited by:

    1. Andor, Mark A. & Osberghaus, Daniel & Simora, Michael, 2020. "Natural Disasters and Governmental Aid: Is there a Charity Hazard?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Paserman, M. Daniele & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2019. "Hurricanes, Climate Change Policies and Electoral Accountability," IZA Discussion Papers 12334, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Lloyd S. Davis & Bienvenido León & Michael J. Bourk & Lei Zhu & Wiebke Finkler, 2022. "Infotainment May Increase Engagement with Science but It Can Decrease Perceptions of Seriousness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Baiardi, Donatella & Morana, Claudio, 2021. "Climate change awareness: Empirical evidence for the European Union," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Livy, Mitchell R., 2023. "Assessing the housing price capitalization of non-destructive flooding events," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 265-274.
    6. Frondel Manuel & Matejko Leonie & Sommer Stephan & Vance Colin & Osberghaus Daniel, 2023. "Green SÖP Extended: The Socio-Ecological Panel Surveys 2020 and 2022," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 243(5), pages 567-583, October.
    7. aus dem Moore, Nils & Brehm, Johannes & Breidenbach, Philipp & Ghosh, Arijit & Gruhl, Henri, 2022. "Flood risk perception after indirect flooding experience: Null results in the German housing market," Ruhr Economic Papers 976, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Nanda Kaji Budhathoki & Douglas Paton & Jonatan A. Lassa & Gopal Datt Bhatta & Kerstin K. Zander, 2020. "Heat, cold, and floods: exploring farmers’ motivations to adapt to extreme weather events in the Terai region of Nepal," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 103(3), pages 3213-3237, September.
    9. Victor Matanggaran & Jan M. Gutteling, 2021. "Explaining Risk Perception of Climate Change in Indonesia through Cultural Dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance, Collectivistic, and Long-term Orientation," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(5), pages 336-345, May.
    10. Federico Bassetti & Giulia Carallo & Roberto Casarin, 2022. "First-order integer-valued autoregressive processes with Generalized Katz innovations," Papers 2202.02029, arXiv.org.
    11. Seol-A Kwon & Seoyong Kim & Jae Eun Lee, 2019. "Analyzing the Determinants of Individual Action on Climate Change by Specifying the Roles of Six Values in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, March.
    12. Moinul Islam & Koji Kotani, 2020. "Who perceive seasonality change? A case of the Meghna basin, Bangladesh," Working Papers SDES-2020-15, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Dec 2020.
    13. Jinjia Wu & Jiansheng Qu & Hengji Li & Li Xu & Hongfen Zhang & Suman Aryal & Jingjing Zeng & Yujie Fan & Qin Wei & Xiafei Liu, 2018. "What Affects Chinese Residents’ Perceptions of Climate Change?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Paul M. Lohmann & Andreas Kontoleon, 2023. "Do Flood and Heatwave Experiences Shape Climate Opinion? Causal Evidence from Flooding and Heatwaves in England and Wales," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(1), pages 263-304, October.
    15. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Paper series 21-16, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    16. Samuel Tomczyk & Maxi Rahn & Henriette Markwart & Silke Schmidt, 2021. "A Walk in the Park? Examining the Impact of App-Based Weather Warnings on Affective Reactions and the Search for Information in a Virtual City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Hasibuan, Abdul Muis & Gregg, Daniel & Stringer, Randy, 2020. "Accounting for diverse risk attitudes in measures of risk perceptions: A case study of climate change risk for small-scale citrus farmers in Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    18. Dessalegn Obsi Gemeda & Debela Hunde Feyssa & Weyessa Garedew, 2021. "Meteorological data trend analysis and local community perception towards climate change: a case study of Jimma City, Southwestern Ethiopia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5885-5903, April.
    19. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Papers 477, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2021.
    20. Zhiying Wang & Xiaodi Liu & Shitao Zhang, 2019. "A New Decision Method for Public Opinion Crisis with the Intervention of Risk Perception of the Public," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-14, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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