IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v5y2013i3p982-996d23964.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Swedish Upper Secondary School Students’ Conceptions of Negative Environmental Impact and Pricing

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Ignell

    (Department of Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 106 91, Sweden
    Graduate School in Education and Sustainable Development, GRESD, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 750 02, Sweden)

  • Peter Davies

    (School of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK)

  • Cecilia Lundholm

    (Centre for Teaching and Learning in the Social sciences, Department of Education and Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 106 91, Sweden)

Abstract

This study explores relationships between upper secondary school students’ understanding of prices and environmental impacts. The study uses responses from 110 students to problems in which they were asked to explain differences in prices and also to express and justify opinions on what should be the difference in prices. Very few students expressed an environmental dimension in their understanding of price. A few students suggested that environmental impact influenced price by raising demand for “Environmentally friendly products”. A few students suggested that ‘environmentally friendly products’ had higher prices because they were more costly to produce. We found no examples of students combining both lines of explanation. However, nearly half of the students believed that prices should reflect environmental effects, and this reasoning was divided between cases where the point was justified by a broad environmental motivation and cases where the point was justified in relation to incentives–to get consumers to act in a more environmentally friendly way.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Ignell & Peter Davies & Cecilia Lundholm, 2013. "Swedish Upper Secondary School Students’ Conceptions of Negative Environmental Impact and Pricing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:3:p:982-996:d:23964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/3/982/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/3/982/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony D. Owen, 2004. "Environmental Externalities, Market Distortions and the Economics of Renewable Energy Technologies," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 127-158.
    2. Yilmaz, Ibrahim & Akcaoz, Handan & Ozkan, Burhan, 2005. "An analysis of energy use and input costs for cotton production in Turkey," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 145-155.
    3. Fiala, Nathan, 2008. "Meeting the demand: An estimation of potential future greenhouse gas emissions from meat production," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 412-419, October.
    4. Leiser, David & Beth Halachmi, Reut, 2006. "Children's understanding of market forces," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 6-19, February.
    5. Sir Nicholas Stern, 2006. "What is the Economics of Climate Change?," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 7(2), pages 1-10, April.
    6. Davies, Peter & Lundholm, Cecilia, 2012. "Students’ understanding of socio-economic phenomena: Conceptions about the free provision of goods and services," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 79-89.
    7. Jules Pretty & Craig Brett & David Gee & Rachel Hine & Chris Mason & James Morison & Matthew Rayment & Gert Van Der Bijl & Thomas Dobbs, 2001. "Policy Challenges and Priorities for Internalizing the Externalities of Modern Agriculture," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 263-283.
    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. Oberrauch, Luis & Kaiser, Tim & Seeber, Günther, 2023. "Measuring economic competence of youth with a short scale," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Waibel, Christoph & Evins, Ralph & Carmeliet, Jan, 2019. "Co-simulation and optimization of building geometry and multi-energy systems: Interdependencies in energy supply, energy demand and solar potentials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1661-1682.
    3. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    4. Pahlavan, Reza & Omid, Mahmoud & Akram, Asadollah, 2011. "Energy use efficiency in greenhouse tomato production in Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 6714-6719.
    5. Ghatrehsamani, Shirin & Ebrahimi, Rahim & Kazi, Salim Newaz & Badarudin Badry, Ahmad & Sadeghinezhad, Emad, 2016. "Optimization model of peach production relevant to input energies – Yield function in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 315-321.
    6. E. Carina H. Keskitalo & Sirkku Juhola & Lisa Westerhoff, 2012. "Climate change as governmentality: technologies of government for adaptation in three European countries," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 435-452, July.
    7. Jonathan Portes & Simon Wren-Lewis, 2015. "Issues in the Design of Fiscal Policy Rules," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83, pages 56-86, September.
    8. Emiko Fukase & Will Martin, 2016. "Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 3-23, February.
    9. Haiying Shao & Bowen Li & Yanjun Jiang, 2023. "Effect and Mechanism of Environmental Decentralization on Pollution Emission from Pig Farming—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Unakıtan, Gökhan & Aydın, Başak, 2018. "A comparison of energy use efficiency and economic analysis of wheat and sunflower production in Turkey: A case study in Thrace Region," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 279-285.
    11. Jonathan Portes & Simon Wren-Lewis, 2015. "Issues in the Design of Fiscal Policy Rules," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83, pages 56-86, September.
    12. Kornek, Ulrike & Klenert, David & Edenhofer, Ottmar & Fleurbaey, Marc, 2021. "The social cost of carbon and inequality: When local redistribution shapes global carbon prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Aditjandra, Paulus Teguh & Mulley, Corinne & Nelson, John D., 2013. "The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 54-65.
    14. Brock, William & Engström, Gustav & Xepapadeas, Anastasios, 2014. "Spatial climate-economic models in the design of optimal climate policies across locations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 78-103.
    15. Karapetyan, Deanna & d'Adda, Giovanna, 2014. "Determinants of conservation among the rural poor: A charitable contribution experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 74-87.
    16. Posthumus, H. & Rouquette, J.R. & Morris, J. & Gowing, D.J.G. & Hess, T.M., 2010. "A framework for the assessment of ecosystem goods and services; a case study on lowland floodplains in England," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1510-1523, May.
    17. Streimikiene, Dalia & Alisauskaite-Seskiene, Ilona, 2014. "External costs of electricity generation options in Lithuania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 215-224.
    18. Gemechu, E.D. & Butnar, I. & Llop, M. & Castells, F., 2012. "Environmental tax on products and services based on their carbon footprint: A case study of the pulp and paper sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 336-344.
    19. Verónica Cecilia Gutman, 2009. "Climate change and incentives for investment in clean technologies: Can we correct the biggest market failure in history by creating more markets?," Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (IIES). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida, Venezuela, vol. 34(27), pages 11-35, January-j.
    20. Pablo Guerrero & Krista Lucenti & Sebastián Galarza S., 2009. "Trade Logistic and Regional Integration in Latin America & the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9331, Inter-American Development Bank.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:3:p:982-996:d:23964. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.