What time to adapt? The role of discretionary time in sustaining the climate change value-action gap

Chai, Andreas and Bradley, Graham and Lo, Alex Y. and Reser, Joseph (2014): What time to adapt? The role of discretionary time in sustaining the climate change value-action gap.

Abstract

We investigate the role discretionary (non-working) time plays in sustaining the gap between individuals’ concern about climate change and their propensity to act on this concern by adopting sustainable consumption practices. Using recent Australian survey data on climate change adaptation, we find that while discretionary time is unrelated to concern about climate change, it is positively correlated with the propensity to adopt mitigating behavior. Moreover, we find that increasing discretionary time is associated with significant reductions in the gap between the concern that individuals express about climate change and their reporting of engagement in sustainable consumption practices.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: discretionary time; environmental concern; sustainable consumption ; climate change ; Australia
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D12 - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q50 - General

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