Linking political attitude and pro-environmental behaviors in China

ABSTRACT

Individual pro-environmental behaviours can have large environmental impacts. In this note, we investigate how political attitude relates to pro-environmental behaviours, using data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2013. Compared to individuals who embrace more government interventions, those who hold the opposite political attitude are less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviours. The results are robust across different specifications. We contribute to the literature by providing the first micro-level evidence from China. Similar to other countries, in China, political attitude is an important driver of pro-environmental behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Political orientation
• environmental behaviours
• waste sorting
• recycling

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• Q56
• D19

Acknowledgments

We are thankful for comments from the anonymous reviewer and Dr. Jens Rommel on an earlier version of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The survey was conducted before the end of one child policy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; Six Talents Peak High Level Talent Project of Jiangsu Province; 333 High Level Talents Training Project of Jiangsu Province.