IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ets/wpaper/9.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental Impact and Pro-Environmental Behavior: Correlations to Income and Environmental Concern

Author

Listed:
  • Heidi Bruderer Enzler
  • Andreas Diekmann

Abstract

Switzerland, like many other countries, has set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Private households play a significant part in achieving these aims. Therefore, it is important to know which factors are related to emissions. So far, most studies have focused on income, household size and other structural factors while neglecting the potential relevance of attitudinal variables such as environmental concern. Those studies that did examine environmental attitudes were mostly based on "intent-oriented" measures of pro-environmental behavior instead of actual environmental impacts. The present study brings these lines of research together by analyzing the relationship between emissions, income and environmental attitudes within a framework of multivariate analysis. Furthermore, three specific emissions domains – mobility, housing and food – are analyzed separately and the results are compared to those based on a scale of pro-environmental behavior. All analyses are based on data from a large representative general population survey, the Swiss Environmental Survey 2007 (n = 3,369), and a subsequent life cycle analysis. The results indicate that higher income and lower levels of environmental concern are both associated with higher emissions. Furthermore, overall emissions are higher for younger, male respondents with higher education, living in smaller households with cars. For emissions by mobility, being economically active is a further predictor of higher emissions. For housing, the pattern is slightly different, in that females and older respondents are attributed higher emissions. In the case of food, however, there is no clear-cut association between emissions and income. In conclusion, this study clearly indicates that next to income, environmental concern is an important predictor of GHG emissions, even when controlling for the effects of income. A very similar pattern of correlations was found for intent-oriented pro-environmental behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Heidi Bruderer Enzler & Andreas Diekmann, 2015. "Environmental Impact and Pro-Environmental Behavior: Correlations to Income and Environmental Concern," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 9, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology.
    • Handle: RePEc:ets:wpaper:9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.ethz.ch/ets/papers/bruderer_diekmann_environmental_2015.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerkhof, Annemarie C. & Nonhebel, Sanderine & Moll, Henri C., 2009. "Relating the environmental impact of consumption to household expenditures: An input-output analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 1160-1170, February.
    2. Vringer, Kees & Blok, Kornelis, 1995. "The direct and indirect energy requirements of households in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 893-910, October.
    3. Henri C. Moll & Klaas Jan Noorman & Rixt Kok & Rebecka Engström & Harald Throne‐Holst & Charlotte Clark, 2005. "Pursuing More Sustainable Consumption by Analyzing Household Metabolism in European Countries and Cities," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(1‐2), pages 259-275, January.
    4. Gough, Ian & Abdallah, Saamah & Johnson, Viki & Ryan-Collins, Josh & Smith, Cindy, 2011. "The distribution of total embodied greenhouse gas emissions by households in the UK, and some implications for social policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 36562, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Giovanni Baiocchi & Jan Minx & Klaus Hubacek, 2010. "The Impact of Social Factors and Consumer Behavior on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United Kingdom," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 14(1), pages 50-72, January.
    6. Bin, Shui & Dowlatabadi, Hadi, 2005. "Corrigendum to "Consumer lifestyles approach to US energy use and the related CO2 emissions": [Energy Policy 33 (2005) 197-208]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1362-1363, July.
    7. Brand, Christian & Preston, John M., 2010. "'60-20 emission'--The unequal distribution of greenhouse gas emissions from personal, non-business travel in the UK," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 9-19, January.
    8. Vringer, Kees & Aalbers, Theo & Blok, Kornelis, 2007. "Household energy requirement and value patterns," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 553-566, January.
    9. Büchs, Milena & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2013. "Who emits most? Associations between socio-economic factors and UK households' home energy, transport, indirect and total CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 114-123.
    10. Bin, Shui & Dowlatabadi, Hadi, 2005. "Consumer lifestyle approach to US energy use and the related CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 197-208, January.
    11. Druckman, A. & Jackson, T., 2008. "Household energy consumption in the UK: A highly geographically and socio-economically disaggregated model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3167-3182, August.
    12. Maria Csutora, 2012. "One More Awareness Gap? The Behaviour–Impact Gap Problem," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 145-163, March.
    13. Tabi, Andrea, 2013. "Does pro-environmental behaviour affect carbon emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 972-981.
    14. Ala-Mantila, Sanna & Heinonen, Jukka & Junnila, Seppo, 2014. "Relationship between urbanization, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and expenditures: A multivariate analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 129-139.
    15. Lenzen, Manfred & Wier, Mette & Cohen, Claude & Hayami, Hitoshi & Pachauri, Shonali & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2006. "A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 181-207.
    16. Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Lenzen, Manfred & Steinberger, Julia K., 2013. "Energy requirements of consumption: Urban form, climatic and socio-economic factors, rebounds and their policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 696-707.
    17. Weber, Christopher L. & Matthews, H. Scott, 2008. "Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 379-391, June.
    18. Shammin, Md. R. & Herendeen, Robert A. & Hanson, Michelle J. & Wilson, Eric J.H., 2010. "A multivariate analysis of the energy intensity of sprawl versus compact living in the U.S. for 2003," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2363-2373, October.
    19. Brand, Christian & Goodman, Anna & Rutter, Harry & Song, Yena & Ogilvie, David, 2013. "Associations of individual, household and environmental characteristics with carbon dioxide emissions from motorised passenger travel," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 158-169.
    20. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Druckman, Angela & Firth, Steven K. & Jackson, Tim, 2014. "Who rebounds most? Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for different UK socioeconomic groups," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 12-32.
    21. Abrahamse, Wokje & Steg, Linda, 2009. "How do socio-demographic and psychological factors relate to households' direct and indirect energy use and savings?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 711-720, October.
    22. Jeffrey Wilson & Peter Tyedmers & Jamie E. L. Spinney, 2013. "An Exploration of the Relationship between Socioeconomic and Well‐Being Variables and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(6), pages 880-891, December.
    23. Ottelin, Juudit & Heinonen, Jukka & Junnila, Seppo, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions from flying can offset the gain from reduced driving in dense urban areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-9.
    24. repec:cep:sticas:/152 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Saamah Abdallah & Ian Gough & Victoria Johnson & Josh Ryan-Collins & Cindy Smith, 2011. "The distribution of total greenhouse gas emissions by households in the UK, and some implications for social policy," CASE Papers case152, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Schulz & Susanne Nicolai & Samuel Tomczyk & Silke Schmidt & Philipp Franikowski & Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, 2024. "Gender and Socioeconomic Influences on Ten Pro-Environmental Behavior Intentions: A German Comparative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Artjoms Ivlevs, 2019. "Adverse Welfare Shocks and Pro‐Environmental Behavior: Evidence from the Global Economic Crisis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(2), pages 293-311, June.
    3. Habibi Asgarabad, Mojtaba & Vesely, Stepan & Klöckner, Christian Andreas, 2024. "Exploring the Interplay between Structural Factors, Environmental Concern, Personal Norm, and Household Electricity Consumption," OSF Preprints gd5ra, Center for Open Science.
    4. Anna Justyna Parzonko & Agata Balińska & Anna Sieczko, 2021. "Pro-Environmental Behaviors of Generation Z in the Context of the Concept of Homo Socio-Oeconomicus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Michał Czepkiewicz & Áróra Árnadóttir & Jukka Heinonen, 2019. "Flights Dominate Travel Emissions of Young Urbanites," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-35, November.
    6. Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Alhusen, Harm, 2019. "On the determinants of pro-environmental behavior: A literature review and guide for the empirical economist," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 350, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics, revised 2019.
    7. Áróra Árnadóttir & Michał Czepkiewicz & Jukka Heinonen, 2019. "The Geographical Distribution and Correlates of Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors in an Urban Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-29, April.
    8. Lawson, Nicholas & Spears, Dean, 2021. "Population Externalities and Optimal Social Policy," SocArXiv 6rv34, Center for Open Science.

    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. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2019. "Interactions in Swiss households’ energy demand: A holistic approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 136-149.
    2. Age Poom & Rein Ahas, 2016. "How Does the Environmental Load of Household Consumption Depend on Residential Location?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Pottier, Antonin, 2022. "Expenditure elasticity and income elasticity of GHG emissions: A survey of literature on household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Lenzen, Manfred & Steinberger, Julia K., 2013. "Energy requirements of consumption: Urban form, climatic and socio-economic factors, rebounds and their policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 696-707.
    5. Ryu Koide & Michael Lettenmeier & Satoshi Kojima & Viivi Toivio & Aryanie Amellina & Lewis Akenji, 2019. "Carbon Footprints and Consumer Lifestyles: An Analysis of Lifestyle Factors and Gap Analysis by Consumer Segment in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-25, October.
    6. Ala-Mantila, Sanna & Heinonen, Jukka & Junnila, Seppo, 2014. "Relationship between urbanization, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and expenditures: A multivariate analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 129-139.
    7. Underwood, Anthony & Fremstad, Anders, 2018. "Does sharing backfire? A decomposition of household and urban economies in CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 404-413.
    8. Li, Jun & Zhang, Dayong & Su, Bin, 2019. "The Impact of Social Awareness and Lifestyles on Household Carbon Emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 145-155.
    9. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    10. Theine, Hendrik & Humer, Stefan & Moser, Mathias & Schnetzer, Matthias, 2022. "Emissions inequality: Disparities in income, expenditure, and the carbon footprint in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    11. Hongwu Zhang & Lequan Zhang & Keying Wang & Xunpeng Shi, 2019. "Unveiling Key Drivers of Indirect Carbon Emissions of Chinese Older Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.
    12. Buchs, Milena & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2013. "UK Households' Carbon Footprint: A Comparison of the Association between Household Characteristics and Emissions from Home Energy, Transport and Other Goods and Services," IZA Discussion Papers 7204, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Schuster, Antonia & Lindner, Michael & Otto, Ilona M., 2023. "Whose house is on fire? Identifying socio-demographic and housing characteristics driving differences in the UK household CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    14. Sanna Ala-Mantila & Jukka Heinonen & Seppo Junnila, 2013. "Greenhouse Gas Implications of Urban Sprawl in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(10), pages 1-18, October.
    15. Lévay, Petra Zsuzsa & Vanhille, Josefine & Goedemé, Tim & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2021. "The association between the carbon footprint and the socio-economic characteristics of Belgian households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    16. Chen, Guangwu & Zhu, Yuhan & Wiedmann, Thomas & Yao, Lina & Xu, Lixiao & Wang, Yafei, 2019. "Urban-rural disparities of household energy requirements and influence factors in China: Classification tree models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1321-1335.
    17. Moises Neil V. Seriño & Stephan Klasen, 2015. "Estimation and Determinants of the Philippines' Household Carbon Footprint," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 44-62, March.
    18. Shammin, Md. R. & Herendeen, Robert A. & Hanson, Michelle J. & Wilson, Eric J.H., 2010. "A multivariate analysis of the energy intensity of sprawl versus compact living in the U.S. for 2003," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2363-2373, October.
    19. Kerkhof, Annemarie C. & Benders, Ren M.J. & Moll, Henri C., 2009. "Determinants of variation in household CO2 emissions between and within countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1509-1517, April.
    20. Andreas Froemelt & René Buffat & Stefanie Hellweg, 2020. "Machine learning based modeling of households: A regionalized bottom‐up approach to investigate consumption‐induced environmental impacts," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(3), pages 639-652, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental impact; greenhouse gas emissions; pro-environmental behavior; income; environmental concern;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    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:ets:wpaper:9. 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: Heidi Bruderer (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.socio.ethz.ch/ .

    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.