Looking beyond the East-West divide? Re-appraising the willingness to pay for environmental quality in 19 European countries

ABSTRACT

This article explores the diversity in willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental quality, highlighting distinctions not only between Eastern and Western Europe but also within former communist countries (FCCs). We obtain mixed results, with little evidence of a generational shift in WTP across birth cohorts, more rapid societal shifts in non-FCCs, and higher levels of baseline WTP in Southeast European FCCs. Drawing on our findings, we advocate for approaches to environmentalism that move beyond the East-West dichotomy, instead examining alternative environmental practices that emerged in diverse cultural contexts, which can aid in addressing the global environmental crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental attitudes
• willingness to pay
• Eastern Europe
• Western Europe
• post-communism
• semi-periphery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See: http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/137506 (Accessed 05/04/2022)

2 The data were downloaded from the V-Dem website using the interactive Variable Graph: https://www.v-dem.net/en/analysis/VariableGraph/ (Accessed 05/04/2022)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jelisaveta Vukelić

Jelisaveta Vukelić is an assistant professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.

Indraneel Sircar

Indraneel Sircar is a lecturer (Teaching) in Quantitative Research Methods and Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University College London, UK. His research focuses primarily on Europeanisation and citizen–led mobilisation in the Western Balkans.