Negative income effect on perception of long-term environmental risk

a r t i c l e i n f o The notion that people with higher income are more concerned about environmental problems is deeply entrenched in economics and some other disciplines. Studies have shown a positive income effect on the intention to pay for environmental improvement. Perception of environmental risk, however, follows a different pattern of variation. This paper demonstrates a negative income effect, using data extracted from a cross-national social survey involving 36 countries. An inverse relationship is observed between people's reported income and their perception of long-term environmental risks associated with climate change, genetic modification of crops and the use of nuclear power. Lower-income individuals see the potential environmental consequences of these human interventions as extremely dangerous—more so than the higher-income ones. Richer people are relatively less concerned about the long-term environmental risks. A possible explanation is that material insecurity reinforces the feeling of risk and danger. People living under more difficult economic situation are more vulnerable and see greater danger. A key implication of these findings is that concern does not follow the ability to pay. People facing higher environmental risks are potentially less able to afford risk reduction support despite that they are likely to be in greater need for it. The notion that people's concern about the environment increases with income is deeply entrenched in economics and some other disciplines. It is most notably articulated by Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economist for the World Bank, in a leaked internal memo making a controversial claim that poor countries are 'under-polluted' and the demand for a clean environment is low among poor people (Guha and Martinez-Alier, 1997). Summer's opinion is consistent with the conventional assumption in mainstream environmental economics that improving environmental quality and avoiding environmental damage are a 'luxury' good. McConnell (1997, p. 395), for instance, is convinced that " households with higher incomes will pay more for reductions in risk ". Riley Dunlap laments the regrettable tendencies among some sociologists for reinforcing the conventional economic assumption (Dunlap and Mertig, 1995; Dunlap and York, 2008). His criticisms target at the sociologist Ronald Inglehart's (1977, 1990) theory of post-materialism. This influential theoretical account posits that members of advanced industrial societies are more concerned about environmental problems due to a gradual shift in people's values to higher-order, post-materialist desires as societies develop and accumulate a certain level of wealth. On the other hand, poor people struggle …