The environmental impact of financial insecurity and conservatism in Germany

There is an ongoing scientific debate about how environmental concern develops in a population, and under which circumstances it might decline at some point. By analysing 29 years of microdata from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper investigates the role of economic factors and political preferences in altering and addressing environmental perceptions in Germany, Europe’s green leader. Results from multinomial and conditional logistic regression models reveal, inter alia, that economic insecurity and support for right-wing political parties significantly contribute to lowering environmental concern.