Open AccessGreen returns to education: Does education affect pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in China?
Author(s) -
Qi Wang,
Geng Niu,
Xu Gan,
Qiaoling Cai
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0263383
Subject(s) - microdata (statistics) , china , educational attainment , affect (linguistics) , robustness (evolution) , psychology , causality (physics) , demographic economics , economics , environmental health , geography , biology , economic growth , medicine , genetics , census , gene , population , physics , archaeology , communication , quantum mechanics
Using microdata from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS 2010), this paper investigates whether there are green returns to education in China, where educational attainment promotes pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. We establish causality by exploiting the exogenous variation induced by the implementation of the Compulsory Schooling Law (CSL) in China. We find evidence that educational attainment is associated with higher levels of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and these estimates are robust to various robustness checks. Further analysis reveals that the acquisition of environmental knowledge is the channel that drives the effect of education on pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. Finally, the effects of education are heterogeneous across individuals.