Connectedness to nature, urbanization and the environment | Emeline Bezin

Emeline will be presenting the paper ‘Connectedness to nature, urbanization and the environment’ which they co-authored with Ingmar Schumacher.

Abstract

Some empirical studies find that early experiences in nature and social interactions are strong determinants of a kid’s and subsequently adult environmental attitude. The point is that if you don’t live close to nature, meaning in an urban region, then it is harder for you to be connected to nature than for someone who lives in a rural part. If you are not connected to nature, then you won’t care about nature. Thus, being disconnected from nature as a child translates into a low incentive to support the environment when adult. We model this transmission of preferences together with socialization from adults in an overlapping generations model including rural-urban migration. We characterize the long-run relationship between urbanization and environmental quality. We show that when connectedness to nature is initially low, stronger urbanization may have a positive impact on the long-run environment