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

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 programs for old-aged and less-educated individuals, and may lead to increased taxation on higher income groups to mitigate city areas' pollution problems.