IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v237y2025ics0921800925001673.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pro-environmental behavior and life satisfaction: How strong is our evidence?

Author

Listed:
  • Binder, Martin
  • Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin
  • Nickel, Jan

Abstract

A positive relationship between pro-environmental behavior and subjective well-being has been used to argue for a “double dividend”, i.e. the narrative that pro-environmental behavior is beneficial for both environment and individual, when measured in the metric of subjective well-being. Our paper argues that the (causal) evidence base for such a narrative is far too weak. We suggest methodological improvements to strengthen the credibility of multivariate regression analyses with observational data. Directed acyclic graphs help with a theoretically grounded selection of control variables and equivalence tests (and associated power considerations) help interpreting null results. Illustrating both for a novel data set from a medium sized German municipality (n=1073), we find no evidence for a positive relationship between pro-environmental behavior and life satisfaction. Equivalence tests robustly reject the null hypothesis of a true effect size larger than even half that from a recent meta-analysis (r=±.11∗∗∗). We discuss the implications of these findings and conclude that this dampens enthusiasm for the narrative of the double dividend.

Suggested Citation

  • Binder, Martin & Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Nickel, Jan, 2025. "Pro-environmental behavior and life satisfaction: How strong is our evidence?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:237:y:2025:i:c:s0921800925001673
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108684
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800925001673
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108684?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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life satisfaction; Double dividend; Pro-environmental behavior; Green self-image; Green identity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:237:y:2025:i:c:s0921800925001673. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.