IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v25y2025i4p545-561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Peer effects affect the adaptation behaviour of rural residents to geohazards in China: a new policy pathway

Author

Listed:
  • Li Peng
  • Sainan Li
  • Jing Tan
  • Xinyue Zhang

Abstract

Disaster prevention and mitigation (DPM) is one of the responses to extreme climate change impacts and depends on the adoption of risk adaptation behaviour by rural residents. While residents exhibit a high willingness to adapt, they also show low behaviour with reference to DPM. While adaptation behaviour of individuals has been studied extensively, the mutual impact of adaptation behaviour among residents has so far been neglected in the literature. Evaluating this interaction could serve as an important foundation for refining disaster reduction policies. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose a novel theoretical framework to analyze peer effects on individual decision-making in DPM. Using data gathered from 536 respondents in Sichuan Province, China, this paper adopts the Bayes Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation method to perform a regression of the spatial probit model. Further, the propensity score matching model was used to explore peer effects on the transformation between residents’ willingness to actual behaviour. Results indicate significant and robust peer effects on DPM behaviour among residents. A heterogeneity test indicated that peer effects are predominantly observed among residents with low and medium social status perception and not in those with high social status perception. Peer effects have a significant and positive influence on the transformation from residents’ willingness to their behaviour. Residents are not completely independent in their decision-making, and complex social mechanisms dictate rational and irrational choices of behaviour. Therefore, it is necessary to fully consider positive peer effects on residents in the formulation of policies.Key policy insights Focusing on the adaptation behaviours and peer effects of rural residents is conducive to improving the public's acceptance of disaster reduction policies.It is difficult for homogenization policies to accurately meet the needs of rural residents in China, and the response to geohazard events requires diversified local policies.Through peer effect, the government can create a kind of environmental soft pressure and promote the transformation of residents’ willingness into behaviour.Due to peer effects, the government can utilize the leading role of a small number of target groups to reduce the cost of implementing disaster reduction policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Peng & Sainan Li & Jing Tan & Xinyue Zhang, 2025. "Peer effects affect the adaptation behaviour of rural residents to geohazards in China: a new policy pathway," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 545-561, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:25:y:2025:i:4:p:545-561
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2024.2401852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2024.2401852
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2024.2401852?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

    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:taf:tcpoxx:v:25:y:2025:i:4:p:545-561. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    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.