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Is the income elasticity of environmental improvements less than one?

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Abstract

We estimated the income elasticity of environmental improvements for a number of European data-sets. The value of this parameter is consistently found to be less than one, with few exceptions. Our findings are compared with state-of-the-art contingent valuation studies from other countries. We also compared our findings with those reported in the literature on charitable donations and corporate donations. These studies show a similar pattern; donations decrease as a percentage of income, as income increases.

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Kristrom, B., Riera, P. Is the income elasticity of environmental improvements less than one?. Environ Resource Econ 7, 45–55 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00420426

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