Three essays on the economics of environmental attitudes

This dissertation brings together three studies in applied economics, offering new insights and contributing to the literature on how individual preferences, personal engagement, and external factors — such as macroeconomic conditions and policy interventions — shape environmental outcomes at both the personal and societal levels within a European context. The three chapters address distinct research questions using different methodologies, and each can be considered a stand-alone paper. The opening chapter offers a broader introduction to one of the dissertation’s central themes - the relationship between economic conditions and environmental concern. It investigates the role of macroeconomic conditions in shaping environmental attitudes across Europe, with a particular focus on whether individuals are more sensitive to economic losses than gains. The findings indicate a strong asymmetry in how individuals respond to positive and negative economic fluctuations. Pro-environmental behavior is significantly more affected by periods of economic downturn than by economic growth. This heightened sensitivity to economic losses suggests that economic cycles have an asymmetric effect on environmental engagement, highlighting the need for long-term economic planning in sustainability policies. The second chapter draws on the “impressionable years” hypothesis from social psychology to examine the impact of economic shocks, particularly the Great Recession, on environmental preferences among young adults. This work tries to focus more narrowly on the specific impact of a macroeconomic event in a specific timing of human formation. The findings suggest that individuals who experience economic recessions during their impressionable years (ages 18 to 25) develop enduring pro-environmental attitudes. This lasting effect indicates that early economic adversity influences sustainability-related behaviors, underscoring the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in understanding environmental engagement. Additionally, this study highlights important gender-related differences in pro-environmental attitudes, revealing that women tend to be more aware of and committed to sustainable lifestyles than men. Both this and the previous study are based on a dataset constructed by merging multiple waves of the European Social Survey with macroeconomic data from the World Bank. The third chapter explores the role of environmentally related policy interventions, specifically focusing on carbon taxation. Despite its potential to reduce emissions, carbon taxation often faces public resistance due to concerns about fairness. This study examines Luxembourg using a randomized survey experiment conducted between 2022 and 2023. The results suggest that transparency in revenue allocation significantly increases public support for carbon taxes and willingness to engage in pro-environmental actions. However, the effectiveness of these treatments varies based on individuals’ personal inclinations and pre-existing beliefs. In particular, the findings indicate that individuals who are more skeptical of science respond differently to the policy interventions, showing greater resistance to pro-environmental messaging. These results demonstrate that well-communicated fiscal policies can positively influence individual environmental engagement but also highlight the importance of considering heterogeneity in public attitudes. This chapter further illustrates how a multifaceted governmental intervention aimed at correcting environmental externalities can align personal social beliefs with broader sustainability goals. Ultimately, the study seeks to identify strategies for increasing public support for green policies.