IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v187y2021ics0921800921001506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

GEM: A short “Growth-vs-Environment” Module for survey research

Author

Listed:
  • Savin, Ivan
  • Drews, Stefan
  • van den Bergh, Jeroen

Abstract

Segmentation of survey respondents is a common tool in environmental communication as it helps to understand opinions of people and to deliver targeted messages. Prior research has segmented people based on their opinions about the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability. This involved an evaluation of 16 statements, which means considerable survey time and cost, particularly if administered by a third party, as well as cognitive burden on respondents, increasing the chance of incomplete responses. In this study, we apply a machine learning algorithm to results from past surveys among citizens and scientists to identify a robust, minimal set of questions that accurately segments respondents regarding their opinion on growth versus the environment. In particular, we distinguish three groups, called Green growth, Agrowth and Degrowth. To this end, we identify five perceptions, namely regarding ‘environmental protection’, ‘public services’, ‘life satisfaction’, ‘stability’ and ‘development space’. Prediction accuracy ranges between 81% and 89% across surveys and opinion segments. We apply the proposed set of questions on growth-vs-environment to a new survey from 2020 to illustrate its use as an efficient instrument in future surveys.

Suggested Citation

  • Savin, Ivan & Drews, Stefan & van den Bergh, Jeroen, 2021. "GEM: A short “Growth-vs-Environment” Module for survey research," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:187:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921001506
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107092
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921001506
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107092?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graham M Turner, 2008. "A Comparison of the Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality," Socio-Economics and the Environment in Discussion (SEED) Working Paper Series 2008-09, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
    2. Drews, Stefan & Antal, Miklós & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2018. "Challenges in Assessing Public Opinion on Economic Growth Versus Environment: Considering European and US Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 265-272.
    3. Tomaselli, Maria Fernanda & Sheppard, Stephen R.J. & Kozak, Robert & Gifford, Robert, 2019. "What do Canadians think about economic growth, prosperity and the environment?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 41-49.
    4. Victor, Peter A., 2012. "Growth, degrowth and climate change: A scenario analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 206-212.
    5. Jeroen van den Bergh & Giorgos Kallis, 2012. "Growth, A-Growth or Degrowth to Stay within Planetary Boundaries?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 909-920.
    6. Drews, Stefan & Savin, Ivan & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2019. "Opinion Clusters in Academic and Public Debates on Growth-vs-Environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 141-155.
    7. Edward W Maibach & Anthony Leiserowitz & Connie Roser-Renouf & C K Mertz, 2011. "Identifying Like-Minded Audiences for Global Warming Public Engagement Campaigns: An Audience Segmentation Analysis and Tool Development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-9, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Savin, Ivan & Drews, Stefan & van den Bergh, Jeroen, 2021. "Free associations of citizens and scientists with economic and green growth: A computational-linguistics analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Drews, Stefan & Savin, Ivan & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2019. "Opinion Clusters in Academic and Public Debates on Growth-vs-Environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 141-155.
    3. Thomas Döring & Birgit Aigner-Walder, 2022. "The Limits to Growth — 50 Years Ago and Today," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 57(3), pages 187-191, May.
    4. Koskimäki, Teemu, 2023. "Targeting socioeconomic transformations to achieve global sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    5. Ângelo Barroso & Cristina Chaves & Francisco Vitorino Martins & Manuel Castelo Branco, 2016. "On the possibility of sustainable development with less economic growth: a research note," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1399-1414, October.
    6. Åsa Nyblom & Karolina Isaksson & Mark Sanctuary & Aurore Fransolet & Peter Stigson, 2019. "Governance and Degrowth. Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis in Latvia and Iceland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Raminta Benetyte & Halit Gonenc & Rytis Krusinskas, 2021. "Corporate Governance vs. Financial Performance for Intensity of Innovation Investments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Tomaselli, Maria Fernanda & Sheppard, Stephen R.J. & Kozak, Robert & Gifford, Robert, 2019. "What do Canadians think about economic growth, prosperity and the environment?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 41-49.
    9. Sigrid Stagl, 2014. "Ecological macroeconomics: reflections on labour markets," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 171-181, September.
    10. Claudio Vitari, 2014. "Electronic currencies for purposive degrowth?," Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management hal-00975432, HAL.
    11. Balint, T. & Lamperti, F. & Mandel, A. & Napoletano, M. & Roventini, A. & Sapio, A., 2017. "Complexity and the Economics of Climate Change: A Survey and a Look Forward," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 252-265.
    12. Nicolas Bouleau, 2012. "Limits To Growth And Stochastics," Post-Print halshs-00782948, HAL.
    13. repec:voc:wpaper:tech82012 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Heikkinen, Tiina, 2018. "An Equilibrium Framework for the Analysis of a Degrowth Society With Asymmetric Agents, Sharing and Basic Income," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 43-53.
    15. Malmaeus, J. Mikael & Alfredsson, Eva C., 2017. "Potential Consequences on the Economy of Low or No Growth - Short and Long Term Perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 57-64.
    16. Rezai, Armon & Stagl, Sigrid, 2016. "Ecological Macreconomics: Introduction and Review," Ecological Economic Papers 9, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    17. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Xhulia Likaj & Michael Jacobs & Thomas Fricke, 2022. "Growth, Degrowth or Post-growth? Towards a synthetic understanding of the growth debate," Basic Papers 2, Forum New Economy.
    19. Morrison, Mark & Duncan, Roderick & Parton, Kevin A., 2013. "Targeting segments in the Australian community to increase support for climate change policy," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 212-217.
    20. Valeria Andreoni, 2020. "The Trap of Success: A Paradox of Scale for Sharing Economy and Degrowth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, April.
    21. Lukáš Režný & Vladimír Bureš, 2019. "Energy Transition Scenarios and Their Economic Impacts in the Extended Neoclassical Model of Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-25, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:187:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921001506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.