How Economic Status and Urban/Non-Urban Differences Condition Pro-Environmental Behaviors: The Case of Taiwan

• In Event: 2251 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 7. Environmental Behavior and Inequality

Abstract

A growing body of literature has documented relationships between economic status and pro-environmental behavior, with some studies finding that more high economic status populations are more environmentally friendly and yet other studies finding that people with low economic status act more environmentally friendly. However, little research focuses on how these contradictory lines of work might be because of a non-linear relationship between economic status and pro-environmental behavior, and how this non-linearity might be driven by differing relationships in urban and non-urban places. This study offers new insight by using data from the 2010 Taiwan Social Change Survey, latent class analysis, and piecewise regression to identify the patterns of pro-environmental behavior and examine a threshold effect of SES on pro-environmental behavior and how this effect differs from urban to non-urban areas. My latent class analysis reveals three pro-environmental behaviors: regulated, cost-saving, and comprehensive pro-environmental behaviors. Consistent with an economic threshold hypothesis, regression analysis indicates that below the economic threshold, people are more likely to engage in cost-saving versus regulated pro-environmental behavior; beyond the economic threshold, individuals are more likely to participate in regulated versus cos-saving pro-environmental behavior. The economic threshold effect exists in urban areas but not in non-urban areas.

Authors

• Yu-An Chen, University at Buffalo

• Yeu-Sheng Hsieh, National Taiwan University