Exploring the Differential Effect of Life Satisfaction on Low and High-Cost Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Salvador del Saz Salazar and Luis Pérez y Pérez
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Salvador del Saz Salazar: Department of Applied Economics II, Universitat de València, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46023 Valencia, Spain
Luis Pérez y Pérez: Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA), Montañana Avenue, 930, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: The role of life satisfaction as a determinant of pro-environmental behavior remains largely unexplored in the extant literature. Using a sample of undergraduate students, we explore the effect of life satisfaction on low- and high-cost pro-environmental behaviors. While low-cost pro-environmental behavior has been defined as recycling activities, high-cost pro-environmental behavior is defined in a contingent valuation framework in which respondents are asked about their willingness to pay extra for offsetting CO 2 emissions, thus avoiding treating the proposed payment as symbolic. Controlling for demographic characteristics and environmental concern, results suggest that life satisfaction has a slightly stronger, and more significant, effect on high-cost pro-environmental behavior than in low-cost pro-environmental behavior. This study also finds that environmental concern and having siblings with a university degree increases the probability of engaging in both behaviors. However, family income is a better predictor of high-cost pro-environmental behavior than of low-cost pro-environmental behavior.

Keywords: subjective well-being; willingness to pay; recycling; public transport emissions; climate change; probit regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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