The Impact of Economic Complexity on the Formation of Environmental Culture

Abstract

This paper establishes economic complexity as a powerful predictor of environmental attitudes. While the economic complexity index (ECI) has been associated with a series of economic outcomes, yet there has not been a link in the literature between ECI and environmental attitudes. This research pushes forward the hypothesis that economic complexity shapes cultural values and beliefs. The research method used is a multilevel empirical analysis that associates aggregate values of the ECI, at the country level, with individual responses related to attitudes towards the environment. Our findings suggest that a marginal increase of the ECI, increases by 0.191 the probability to be a member of environmental organisations and an increase by 0.259 in the probability to engage in voluntary work for the environment. To further reinforce our findings by ensuring identification we replicate the benchmark analysis using as a proxy of a country’s level of economic complexity, the average ECI of the neighbouring countries (weighted by population and/or volume of trade). With a similar intention, i.e., to mitigate endogeneity concerns as well as to further frame our findings as “the cultural implications of ECI” we replicate our analysis with a sample of second generation immigrants. The immigrant analysis, suggests that the level of economic complexity of the parents’ country of origin, has a long-lasting effect on second generation immigrants’ attitudes related to the environment. Because humankind’s attitudes and actions are of key importance for a sustainable future, a better understanding as to what drives environmental attitudes appears critical both for researchers and policy makers.

The Nexus between Sustainable Economic Development and Government Health Expenditure in Asian Countries Based on Ecological Footprint Consumption

“…Ecological Footprint (EF) is a more comprehensive and major source of measurement of environmental damage, with greenhouse gas emissions first established by [35] and later improved by [36]. EF describes the social requirements of natural surroundings, as it gauges, by making additions of the natural accounting system, all means of natural resources required to support an economy.…”

Effect of Economic Complexity on Unemployment in Terms of Gender: Evidence from BEM Economies

“…However, other studies (Saure and Zoabi, 2009) have revealed that economic complexity reduces female labour force participation. There are also studies where there is a U-shaped relationship between employment and economic complexity in the context of gender (Luci, 2009;Lapatinas et al, 2021). Contrary to these fi ndings, there are also studies showing that there is no concrete relationship between economic complexity and unemployment (Ferraz et al, 2017).…”

“…This article makes two important contributions to the relevant literature. The fi rst contribution comes from the limited number of studies that analyse the impact of economic complexity on labour markets at the gender level (Goldin, 1990(Goldin, , 1991(Goldin, , 2000Black and Juhn, 2000;Barza et al, 2020;Saure and Zoabi, 2009;Luci, 2009;Lapatinas et al, 2021). These studies have examined the impact of economic complexity on employment, not the impact on unemployment.…”

Foreign aid as a catalyst for improving productive capabilities in recipients

“…The ability of economic complexity to predict future growth has made its application relevant to topics in development economics ranging from income growth to the environment. Scholars have demonstrated that economic complexity contributes significantly to economic growth (Gala et al, 2016; Hausmann et al, 2013; Hidalgo & Hausmann, 2009; Sweet & Eterovic, 2019), income equality (Hartmann et al, 2017), export competitiveness (Olasehinde‐Williams & Oshodi, 2021), human development (Ferraz et al, 2018), jobs and employment (Adam et al, 2021) and better environmental performance (Boleti et al, 2021; Lapatinas et al, 2021; Neagu, 2019; Romero & Gramkow, 2021). However, the determinants of economic complexity are less frequently studied than its contributions (see, e.g., Bahar et al, 2022 for demographic determinants; Antonietti & Franco, 2021, Kamguia et al, 2022, Nguyen & Su, 2021 for financial determinants; and Sweet & Maggio, 2015 for institutional determinants).…”

“…The ability of economic complexity to predict future growth has made its application relevant to topics in development economics ranging from income growth to the environment. Scholars have demonstrated that economic complexity contributes significantly to economic growth (Gala et al, 2016;Hausmann et al, 2013;Hidalgo & Hausmann, 2009;Sweet & Eterovic, 2019), income equality (Hartmann et al, 2017), export competitiveness (Olasehinde-Williams & Oshodi, 2021), human development (Ferraz et al, 2018), jobs and employment (Adam et al, 2021) and better environmental performance (Boleti et al, 2021;Lapatinas et al, 2021;Neagu, 2019;Romero & Gramkow, 2021).…”