IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ude/wpaper/0113.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental Concern and Behavior: Do Personal Attributes Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Natalia Melgar

    (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)

  • Irene Mussio

    (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)

  • Maximo Rossi

    (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República)

Abstract

Pro-environmental conducts are different from pro-environmental opinions, given the fact that there is not a strict relationship between meaning something and acting according to those principles. The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudinal factors which determine the concern for the environment as well as four environmentally friendly behaviors, while trying to account for the heterogeneity of pro-environment attitudes. What we found is there is a set of characteristics which determine the willingness to take pro-environmental actions: women, marriage, higher education, public employment, higher levels of religiosity, having a left-party ideology and belonging to a trade union are positively correlated with environmentally friendly behaviors. Younger individuals tend to take more environmentally friendly actions compared to older respondents. In general, attitudes and behaviors do not differ between groups of countries. In a second stage, we studied the joint effects of expressing concern and taking environmentally friendly attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalia Melgar & Irene Mussio & Maximo Rossi, 2013. "Environmental Concern and Behavior: Do Personal Attributes Matter?," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0113, Department of Economics - dECON.
    • Handle: RePEc:ude:wpaper:0113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/2248
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hidano, Noboru & Kato, Takaaki & Aritomi, Masakazu, 2005. "Benefits of participating in contingent valuation mail surveys and their effects on respondent behavior: a panel analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 63-80, January.
    2. Dupont, Diane P. & Bateman, Ian J., 2012. "Political affiliation and willingness to pay: An examination of the nature of benefits and means of provision," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 43-51.
    3. Fredrik Carlsson & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2000. "Willingness to pay for improved air quality in Sweden," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 661-669.
    4. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2006. "Environmental Morale and Motivation," IEW - Working Papers 288, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    5. Lange, Ian & Moro, Mirko & Traynor, Laura, 2014. "Green hypocrisy?: Environmental attitudes and residential space heating expenditure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 76-83.
    6. Videras Julio R & Owen Ann L, 2006. "Public Goods Provision and Well-Being: Empirical Evidence Consistent with the Warm Glow Theory," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-40, April.
    7. Natalia Melgar & Máximo Rossi, 2012. "A Cross‐Country Analysis of the Risk Factors for Depression at the Micro and Macro Levels," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 354-376, April.
    8. David M. Konisky & Jeffrey Milyo & Lilliard E. Richardson, 2008. "Environmental Policy Attitudes: Issues, Geographical Scale, and Political Trust," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1066-1085, December.
    9. H. Peter Witzke & Guido Urfei, 2001. "Willingness To Pay for Environmental Protection in Germany: Coping With the Regional Dimension," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 207-214.
    10. Blomquist, Glenn C. & Whitehead, John C., 1998. "Resource quality information and validity of willingness to pay in contingent valuation," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 179-196, June.
    11. Dupont, Diane P., 2004. "Do children matter? An examination of gender differences in environmental valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 273-286, July.
    12. Owen, Ann L. & Videras, Julio, 2006. "Civic cooperation, pro-environment attitudes, and behavioral intentions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 814-829, July.
    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. Natalia Melgar & Máximo Rossi, 2012. "Involvement in environmental causes, does the joint effect between subjective income and the performance of the country matter?," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    2. Benno Torgler & Bruno S. Frey & Clevo Wilson, 2007. "Environmental and Pro-Social Norms: Evidence from 30 Countries," Working Papers 2007.84, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Benno Torgler & María A.García-Valiñas & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Differences in Preferences Towards the Environment: The Impact of a Gender, Age and Parental Effect," CREMA Working Paper Series 2008-01, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    4. Benno Torgler & Maria A. Garcia-Valinas & Alison Macintyre, 2012. "Justifiability of Littering: An Empirical Investigation," Environmental Values, White Horse Press, vol. 21(2), pages 209-231, May.
    5. Benno Torgler & Maria A. Garcia-Valinas & Alison Macintyre, 2012. "Justifiability of Littering: An Empirical Investigation," Environmental Values, White Horse Press, vol. 21(2), pages 209-231, May.
    6. Benno Torgler & María A.García-Valiñas & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Differences in Preferences Towards the Environment: The Impact of a Gender, Age and Parental Effect," CREMA Working Paper Series 2008-01, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    7. María A. García-Valiñas & Benno Torgler, 2008. "Impuestos y Protección Medioambiental: Un Análisis de las Preferencias Individuales a nivel Europeo," Working Papers 03-2008, Institute of Local Public Finance.
    8. Torgler Benno & Frey Bruno S. & Wilson Clevo, 2009. "Environmental and Pro-Social Norms: Evidence on Littering," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-41, April.
    9. Torgler, Benno & Garcia-Valinas, Maria A., 2007. "The determinants of individuals' attitudes towards preventing environmental damage," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2-3), pages 536-552, August.
    10. Benno Torgler & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas, 2005. "The Willingness to Pay for Preventing Environmental Damage," CREMA Working Paper Series 2005-22, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    11. Torgler, Benno & Garcã A-Valiã‘As, Marã A A. & Macintyre, Alison, 2011. "Participation in environmental organizations: an empirical analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 591-620, October.
    12. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Papers 477, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2021.
    13. Martinangeli, Andrea & Zoli, Mariangela, 2013. "Exploring Environmentally Significant Behaviors in a Multidimensional Perspective," Working Papers in Economics 561, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    14. Benno Torgler & María A. García Valiñas & Alison Macintyre, 2008. "Environmental Participation and Environmental Motivation," Working Papers 2008.95, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    15. Benno Torgler & María A. García Valiñas & Alison Macintyre, 2008. "Environmental Participation and Environmental Motivation," Working Papers 2008.95, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    16. Benno Torgler & Bruno S. Frey & Clevo Wilson, 2007. "Environmental and Pro-Social Norms: Evidence from 30 Countries," Working Papers 2007.84, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Paper series 21-16, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    18. Benno Torgler & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas, 2006. "Participation in Environmental Organizations: Political Interest and State Capacity," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-14, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    19. Marie Briguglio, 2016. "Household Cooperation In Waste Management: Initial Conditions And Intervention," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 497-525, July.
    20. Schumacher, Ingmar, 2014. "An Empirical Study of the Determinants of Green Party Voting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 306-318.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environment; conduct; attitudes; concern; behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ude:wpaper:0113. 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: Andrea Doneschi or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/derauuy.html .

    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.