The relationship between country and individual household wealth and climate change concern: The mediating role of control

Kelly Fielding, Celine Nauges and Sarah Wheeler

No 20-1086, TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Abstract: Although past findings are inconclusive, there is evidence of a negative relationship between wealth—at the household and country level—and climate change concern. One explanation for this relationship is that wealth provides a buffer against the risks of climate change, leading people in wealthy countries or wealthy households to perceive a greater sense of control over climate change impacts which in turn results in lower levels of concern. We tested this hypothesis with data sourced from the OECD Environment Directorate which conducted a detailed household survey in 2011 of 11 OECD countries (N=10,162). Our results accord with past studies showing a significant negative relationship between country and household wealth and individuals’ perceptions of the seriousness of climate change. Moreover, our findings suggest that this relationship is mediated through sense of control, measured at the country level by the readiness index and at the household level by the extent of adoption of energy efficiency improvements. These findings raise the question of how best to incentivise action on climate change amongst those with the ability - but not necessarily the motivation - to respond.

Keywords: climate change concern; wealth; control; country wealth; household wealth. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/TSE/docu ... 2020/wp_tse_1086.pdf Full Text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The relationship between country and individual household wealth and climate change concern: the mediating role of control (2021)
Working Paper: The relationship between country and individual household wealth and climate change concern: the mediating role of control (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tse:wpaper:124190

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().