Absolute income, relative income and environmental concern: Evidence from different regions in China

This present study argues that compared to absolute income, relative income is more likely to explain environmental concern. In theory, relative income influences environmental concern by the social comparison effect and the information effect, and the influential direction relies on the strength of both effects. Based on CGSS 2010 data about different regions in China, this study firstly analyzes the relationship between relative income and environmental concern and explore whether there are regional, urban-rural and gender differences in this relationship or not. Our regression result based on the whole sample reveals that without considering relative income, a 1% increase in absolute income is associated with a 0.86 increase in environmental concern. But incorporating relative income in regression models, we find that absolute income does not exert an influence on environmental concern, and a 1% increase in the percentile rank of income implies a 3.65 increase in environmental concern.