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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Is Unemployment Good For The Environment?, Andrew G. Meyer
Is Unemployment Good For The Environment?, Andrew G. Meyer
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
Environmental quality is a public good, potentially impacted by everybody. Individual level pro-environmental behavior affects environmental quality in the aggregate. Therefore, it is important to understand what causes individual’s pro-environmental behaviors to change. We quantify the causal effect of one determinant, unemployment, using an EU-27 population representative Eurobarometer survey. Drawing on results from the theory of the private provision of public goods, and recognizing that unemployment decreases income and the opportunity cost of time, we formulate testable predictions that unemployment will decrease the extent of pro-environmental behaviors that require monetary contributions and increase the extent of pro-environmental behaviors that mainly …
Heterogeneity In The Preferences And Pro-Environmental Behavior Of College Students: The Effects Of Years On Campus, Demographics, And External Factors, Andrew G. Meyer
Heterogeneity In The Preferences And Pro-Environmental Behavior Of College Students: The Effects Of Years On Campus, Demographics, And External Factors, Andrew G. Meyer
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
Models from several social science fields have identified factors that lead to pro-environmental behavior. This research builds on those models by analyzing a survey completed by over 500 undergraduates at a US liberal arts university to examine the characteristics of students that are associated with more environmentally friendly behavior and quantify the desirability of different environmental initiatives. There is evidence that the probability of pro-environmental behavior substantially increases with each additional year that a student spends on campus. The magnitude of the effect is between 4 and 10 percentage points per year, depending on the specific behavior and empirical model. …
Does Education Increase Pro-Environmental Behavior? Evidence From Europe, Andrew G. Meyer
Does Education Increase Pro-Environmental Behavior? Evidence From Europe, Andrew G. Meyer
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
It is often observed that individuals with higher education levels tend to be more environmentally friendly. Yet, the causal evidence is lacking because there may well be omitted variables that cause individuals to attain more education and also cause individuals to be environmentally conscious. We implement a regression discontinuity design to estimate the increase in educational attainment due to changes in compulsory education laws in 20th century Europe. This allows us to overcome the identification problem of endogenous educational attainment. Using two waves of Eurobarometer surveys, we find a positive local average treatment effect for 7 of the 8 pro-environmental …