Empirical analysis of the decisions of German citizens for environmental protection distinguishing between reward and public award: Results from a survey among citizens in a small German city

The core questions of this paper are: What are the determinants for the provisions of some public goods like environmental protection work by citizens and how can this work be delegated to the citizens? On the basis of a survey's micro data, we show which motives are relevant to the choice between a public award with no monetary value and a symbolic payment of €10. For these purposes, we apply the binary choice models. The results reveal several significant impacts where the age as continuous variable shows a stable quadratic-like shape with firstly decreasing and then increasing vigilance for moneyless participation in environmental protection regarding the age of a person. The intrinsic motivation itself seems to be another crucial positive factor. For example, the higher planed hypothetic free time measured in hypothetic hours for environmental protection, the higher the probability that this individual indeed would do it. Moreover, the one's reputation may influence positively the honorary contribution to environmental protection. On the other hand, the probability for an active honorary environmental protection is smaller by young people in training and in absence of social situations. Interestingly, we found that the gender plays no significant role in this context. Hence, we can provide an elaboration of an incentive system for environmental commitment of Kassel's citizens which can be a base for further regional economic policy in this context.