Green Behavioural (In)consistencies: Are Pro-environmental Behaviours in Different Domains Substitutes or Complements?

Households' consumption patterns and behaviors have profound influence on natural resources and environmental quality. This paper explores whether environmentalbehaviors and willingness to pay (WTP) in the household domains transport, energyconsumption and water consumption are substitutes or complements. Using a crosscountry data set from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentSurvey on Environmental Attitudes and Behavior from 2008, a random-effects(ordered) probit model is used to answer this question for the following countries:Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, Italy, and South Korea. It is found that in mostcountries, actual environmental behaviors are substitutes, while WTP for environmental public goods in different domains is mostly complementary. Grounding in theseresults, policies aiming to encourage overall environmentally friendly lifestyles shouldtherefore be all-encompassing of several public domains, instead of individual ones, toavoid the risk of negative spillovers