The economy and environmental attitudes: Does a good economy make citizens care more about the environment?

Abstract

The relationship between economic conditions and environmental attitudes has been hotly debated in academic and public discourse. Some contend that economic prosperity strengthens environmental attitudes, while others argue that no such relationship exists. We shed light on the economy-environmental importance relationship by incorporating both nonlinear effects and public perceptions of the economy. Two countries with comparable economic performance and cultural heritage, Australia and Canada, are investigated. Using opinion survey data in a time-series analysis over a 20-year period, we find that GDP per capita has a nonlinear relationship with environmental attitudes in both countries, and the inclusion of perceptions of the economy significantly improves the prediction of environmental attitudes. In both Australia and Canada, a U-shaped relationship is observed; initial improvements in economic conditions tend to worsen environmental attitudes, but past a certain threshold, further economic improvements result in increased environmental concern. Perceptions of the economy too showed analogous trends. In both countries, positive perceptions of the economy were associated with strong environmental attitudes; at least in Canada, negative perceptions of the economy were also positively associated with environmental attitudes. The nonlinear effects of the economy as well as perceptions of the economy helps shed light on the current inconclusive literature on the relationship between the economy and citizens pro-environmental support. This is an important consideration given the critical importance to the future sustainability of the natural environment.