Rational Choice, Corporate Environmental Behavior, and the Eco-Gender Gap

• In Event: Predicting and Explaining White-Collar and Corporate Offending

Abstract

Gender is a strong correlate of crime-including white-collar and corporate crime, with men having a higher propensity compared to women (Steffensmeier & Allen, 1996; Fagan, 2002; Kruttschnitt, 2013; Benson & Harbinson, 2020). This project specifically focuses on how men and women think about or make decisions regarding corporate environmental crime. Of particular interest is whether and how gender may be linked to corporate environmental offending and its counterpart "overcompliance" given that some research has uncovered an "eco-gender" gap in attitudes toward the environment. Using a factorial survey of environmental noncompliance and overcompliance vignettes that asks about their willingness to act as the depicted manager, I am able to assess their evaluation of factors manipulated in the scenario and whether other characteristics (not experimentally manipulated) affect their behavioral intentions. I use a subjective utility model and employ regression analyses to further understand whether and how gender plays a role in decision-making. I expect to find that women, compared to men, are more “other-focused”, influencing their decisions to make them more likely to protect and improve the environment for the ecological environment and human health.

Author

• Jocelyn Evens, University of Maryland, College Park