A Probit Estimation of Urban Bases of Environmental Awareness: Evidence from Sylhet City, Bangladesh

Alam, Mohammad Masud (2013): A Probit Estimation of Urban Bases of Environmental Awareness: Evidence from Sylhet City, Bangladesh. Published in: Development Compilation , Vol. 09, No. 01 (2013)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the significant factors contributing to environmental awareness among individuals living in the urban area of Sylhet, Bangladesh. Ordered Probit(OPM) estimation is applied on the value of ten measures of individual environmental concern. The estimated results of OPM reveal the dominance of higher education, higher income, and full-employment status on environmental concern and environmentally responsible behavior. Younger and more educated respondents tended to be more knowledgeable and concerned than older and less educated respondents. The marginal effect of household size, middle-income level income, and part-time employment status of the survey respondents played a less significant role in the degree of environmental awareness. Findings also validate the "age hypothesis" proposed by Van Liere and Dunlap (1980), and the gender effect reveals an insignificant role in determining the degree of environmental concern. Environmental awareness among urban individuals with higher income increased linearly with environmental awareness programs which may have significant policy importance, such as environmental awareness program for old-aged and less-educated individuals, and may lead to increased taxation on higher income group to mitigate city areas' pollution problems.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ordered Probit Model(OPM),Environmental concern, Environmental awareness , Sylhet City, Bangladesh.
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q50 - General; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution ; Water Pollution ; Noise ; Hazardous Waste ; Solid Waste ; Recycling; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth

References

Andrews, F. M., & Stephan, W. (1978). Social Indicators of Well Being: American's Perception of Life Quality, New York, Plenum.

Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R ( 1990). Trying to Consume, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Sep. 1990), pp. 127-140

Buttel, F. H. (1987). New directions in environmental sociology. Annual review of sociology, 13(1), 465-488.

Buttel, F. M., & Flinn, W. L. (1978). The Politics of Environmental Concern The Impacts of Party Identification and Political Ideology on Environmental Attitudes. Environment and Behavior, 10(1), 17-36.

Davidson, D. J., & Freudenburg, W. R. (1996). Gender and environmental risk concerns: A review and analysis of available research. Environment and Behavior, 28(3): 302-339.

Duroy, M. (2005). The Determinants of Environmental Awareness and Behavior. Rensselaer Working Papers in Economics, No. 0501.

Fransson, N., & Garling, T. (1999). Environmental concern: Conceptual definitions, measurement methods, and research findings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19(4), 369–382.

Sigeki, N., Reeitsu, K., Hideo, O., & Shigeki, F. (1997). Environmental Awareness in Developing Countries: Case of China and Thailand, Institute of Developing Economies. Tokyo.

Howell, S. E., & S. B. Laska. (1992). The changing face of the environmental coalition: A research note. Environment and Behavior, 24(2): 134-144.

Harry, J. (1971). Work and leisure: situational attitudes. Pacific Sociological Review, 14:302-09.

Inglehart, Ronald. (1990). Culture Shift: in Advanced Industrial Society, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.

Jones, R. E., & Dunlap, R. E. (1992). The social bases of environmental concern: Have they changed over time. Rural Sociology, 57, 28-47.

Markandya, A., Harou, P., Bellu, L. G., & Cistulli, V. (2002). Environmental economics for sustainable growth: A handbook for practitioners. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed. New York: Viking Press.

Poortinga, W., L. Steg, & C. Vlek. (2004). Values, environmental concern, and environmental behavior. Environment and Behavior, 36(1): 70-93.

Roberts, J. T., & Grimes, P. E. (1997). Carbon intensity and economic development 1962–1991: a brief exploration of the environmental Kuznets curve. World Development, 25(2), 191-198.

Schahn, J., & Holzer, E. (1990). Studies of Individual Environmental Concern The Role of Knowledge, Gender, and Background Variables. Environment and Behavior, 22(6), 767-786.

Shen, J., & Saijo, T. (2007). The socioeconomic determinants of individual environmental concern: evidence from Shanghai data (No. 07E003). Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.

Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., & Kalof, L. (1993). Value orientations, gender, and environmental concern. Environment and Behavior, 25(5), 322-348.

Stern, P. C., & Dietz, T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of social issues, 50(3), 65-84.

Van Liere, K. D., & Dunlap, R. E. (1980). The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanations and empirical evidence. Public opinion quarterly, 44(2), 181-197.

Wall, G. (1995). General Versus Specific Environmental Concern A Western Canadian Case. Environment and Behavior, 27(3), 294-316.