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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
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 …
(Wp 2015-02) Is Unemployment Good For The Environment?, Andrew G. Meyer
(Wp 2015-02) Is Unemployment Good For The Environment?, Andrew G. Meyer
Economics Working Papers
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 …