0000000000113649
AUTHOR
Peter Preisendörfer
Green Homeowners? An Empirical Application of Fischel’s Homevoter Hypothesis
It is a no-brainer that owners of private property usually care about their personal possessions. But does this also apply to public goods? Fischel’s homevoter hypothesis argues that property owners—in this case homeowners—will exhibit more than average concern with regard to public goods, particularly local public goods in their own neighborhood such as the local crime rate, nearby schools, and environmental quality. This contribution applies Fischel’s hypothesis to the public good of residential environmental conditions. Based on survey and administrative data collected in two cities, Mainz in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland, it examines whether house and apartment owners, as compared t…
Zahlungsbereitschaft für kollektive Umweltgüter / Willingness to Pay for Collective Environmental Goods
Zusammenfassung Um kollektive (Umwelt-)Güter zu bewerten, verwenden Ökonomen seit nunmehr etlichen Jahren Auskünfte zur Zahlungsbereitschaft, die in Umfragen erhoben werden. Die Zahlungsbereitschaftsanalyse hat sich zu einem wichtigen Forschungsfeld entwickelt, dessen Ergebnisse zum Teil in politische und juristische Entscheidungen einfließen. Der vorliegende Artikel fordert die Soziologie auf, sich in dieses Forschungsfeld einzumischen. Konkret wird am Beispiel der monetären Bewertung biologischer Vielfalt im Wald gezeigt, dass die Soziologie mit ihrem Fundus an Handlungstheorien Erklärungsschwächen der herkömmlichen ökonomischen Theorie überwinden kann. Auf der Grundlage einer empirischen…
The social acceptance of airport expansion scenarios: A factorial survey experiment
Abstract Against the background of growing aviation and protests against air traffic in many countries, we employ a factorial survey experiment to examine the social acceptance of airport expansion scenarios in two European cities located near the international airports of Frankfurt (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland), respectively. In our experiment, respondents evaluated short descriptions of airport expansion scenarios that varied in several impact attributes. The experiment helps to disentangle to what extent environmental impacts (aircraft noise), economic impacts (job creation), participatory justice aspects (participation opportunities), and distributive justice aspects (noise distrib…
Einstellungen und Verhalten gegenüber geflüchteten Menschen : Ist die räumliche Distanz von Bedeutung?
Die klassische Kontakthypothese aus der Forschung zu Fremdenfeindlichkeit postuliert einen negativen Zusammenhang: Je mehr und intensivere Kontakte zu einer ethnischen Minorität bestehen, desto eher werden Vorurteile reduziert und desto geringer sind fremdenfeindliche Einstellungen. Empirisch konnte dieser Effekt vielfach bestätigt werden. In unserem Beitrag untersuchen wir eine Erweiterung dieser „sozialen“ Kontakthypothese hin zu einer „räumlichen“ bzw. „geografischen“ Kontakthypothese. Konkret geht es um die Frage, ob Einstellungen gegenüber geflüchteten Menschen davon abhängen, inwieweit Befragte durch ihren Wohnstandort Kontakt bzw. eine räumliche Nähe zu Flüchtlingsunterkünften haben.…
Rational Choice Theory and the Environment: Variants, Applications, and New Trends
Rational choice theory (RCT) is a research paradigm based on methodological individualism. Collective phenomena are explained by assumptions about the behavior of (subjectively) rational individual or corporate actors. In environmental research, RCT is used to predict ecological perceptions, attitudes and behavior on the micro level, and to shed light on environmental outcomes on the macro level. The most fundamental insight from RCT is that environmental problems are often the result of a social dilemma, that is, individuals’ purposive action leads to unintended negative collective consequences. This chapter addresses variants of RCT including game theory, shows applications in the field o…
IN SEARCH OF BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP: WHY IS THERE A LACK OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY AMONG THE BLACK POPULATION IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Compared to other ethnic groups, the black population of South Africa has a low participation rate in entrepreneurship activities. The research question of this article is to explain this empirical fact. Based on twenty-four expert interviews, five patterns of explanation are presented and elaborated: a historical apartheid explanation, a financial resources explanation, a human capital explanation, a traits and mindset explanation and a social capital and network explanation. The historical apartheid explanation cannot be qualified independently of the other explanations as a distinctive explanation of its own. Although missing financial resources and shortages of human capital are the fa…
To Pay or Not to Pay: Competing Theories to Explain Individuals’ Willingness to Pay for Public Environmental Goods
Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively. Several theories have been proposed in an attempt to explain individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for public environmental goods. While most studies only take into account a single theory, this article discusses competing theories. These include, in addition to a basic economic model, the theory of public goods, Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, and Schwartz’s norm-activation…
Let’s Ask About Sex : Methodological Merits of the Sealed Envelope Technique in Face-to-Face Interviews
When it comes to deviant behavior and other sensitive topics, respondents in surveys tend either to refuse answering such sensitive questions or to tailor their answers in a socially desirable direction. This occurs by underreporting on negatively connoted behaviors or attitudes and by overreporting on positively connoted ones (be it deliberately or undeliberate). Thus, prevalence estimates of deviant traits are biased. Moreover, if the tendency to misreport is related to influencing factors of the deviant behavior or attitude under investigation, the correlations are biased as well.
Development and Structure of Environmental Worries in Germany 1984–2019
Abstract Referring to a survey question in the German socio-economic panel, which measures worries about protecting the environment, the article looks at the development of environmental worries in Germany for the timespan 1984–2019. The analyses mainly have descriptive character. We explore several expectations and assumptions discussed in historical accounts of the environmental movement in Germany and in empirical studies on environmental attitudes and their determinants. Results show that the overall development can be divided into a period of rising environmental worries in the 1980s, a considerable decline in the 1990s, and a relative stability since 2000. From 2018 to 2019, however, …
Das Feldexperiment von Best und die Low-Cost-Hypothese. Eine Erwiderung / The Field Study by Best and the Low-Cost Hypothesis. A Reply
Zusammenfassung In unserer Replik auf den Artikel von Best (ZfS 2/2009) skizzieren wir ein einfaches Modell umweltverantwortlicher Entscheidungen. Unter bestimmten Verteilungsannahmen folgt die Low-Cost-Hypothese aus diesem Modell. Es erklärt zudem die diskrepanten Ergebnisse der Studien von Derksen und Gartrell (1993) und Best zum Recyclingverhalten.
Leugnen oder gestehen? Bestimmungsfaktoren wahrer Antworten in Befragungen / To Deny or to Confess? Determinants of Truthful Answers in Surveys
Zusammenfassung Der Artikel berichtet die Ergebnisse einer Validierungsstudie, in der es um das Problem wahrer Antworten in Umfragen geht. Auf der Grundlage einer schriftlichen Befragung von rund 300 Personen, die in den zurückliegenden Jahren eine oder mehrere kleinere Straftaten begangen hatten und dafür strafrechtlich verurteilt wurden, wird untersucht, wie häufig die Delinquenten in der Umfrage ihre strafrechtliche Verurteilung zugeben und von welchen Faktoren die Tendenz zum Leugnen bzw. Gestehen abhängt. Der Satz der im Einzelnen überprüften Einflussfaktoren wird aus verschiedenen Varianten der Rational-Choice-Theorie hergeleitet. Ausgewählte Ergebnisse: Insgesamt gestehen knapp zwei …
Asking Sensitive Questions
This article is an empirical contribution to the evaluation of the randomized response technique (RRT), a prominent procedure to elicit more valid responses to sensitive questions in surveys. Based on individual validation data, we focus on two questions: First, does the RRT lead to higher prevalence estimates of sensitive behavior than direct questioning (DQ)? Second, are there differences in the effects of determinants of misreporting according to question mode? The data come from 552 face-to-face interviews with subjects who had been convicted by a court for minor criminal offences in a metropolitan area in Germany. For the first question, the answer is negative. For the second, it is po…
Green and Greenback
The low-cost hypothesis predicts that the strength of effects of environmental concern on environmental behavior diminishes with increasing behavioral costs. Thus, environmental concern influences environmental behavior primarily in situations and under conditions connected with low costs and little inconvenience for individual actors. In a first step, we develop and specify this hypothesis. Referring to two procedures, we then test it on the basis of an environmental survey of a random sample of 2307 respondents from the German population. The empirical evidence is positive. The low-cost hypothesis is not confined to the area of environmental research. It points to general limits of attit…
Annoyance due to residential road traffic and aircraft noise: Empirical evidence from two European cities
Based on a study in two European cities, Mainz in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland, the article investigates both acoustical and non-acoustical factors affecting indoor annoyance due to residential road traffic and aircraft noise. We specifically focus on three factors: (1) the role of windows as a feature of the building where people live; (2) the role of individual environmental concern as a general attitude; and (3) the role of household income as an indicator of socioeconomic resources. Empirical results show that closed windows in general and closed high-quality windows in particular are an important barrier against outdoor road traffic and aircraft noise, as well as a helpful subject…