Is it Greener on the Right Side? The Relationship between Political Preferences and Environmental Behavior in Hungary

Environmentalism and pro-environmental behavior are widely thought to correlate with political attitudes. In particular, both empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that left-leaning individuals have more favorable dispositions toward environmentalism and practices that are regarded as environmentally friendly. We test this hypothesis using election data from Hungary. The main novelty of our result is that we study revealed, not stated, preferences. We concentrate on one particular environmental practice: waste separation. Surprisingly, we find that districts with a higher left-wing vote share engage less in waste separation on average. This result, although surprising, is consistent with previous survey-based evidence. We provide suggestions on how to interpret and explain our findings.