Big Data Measures of Environmental Concern

Abstract

Environmental concern is a subjective state of society and researchers have typically relied on survey data to measure it. However, survey-based methods only capture a snapshot of it at the time and place the surveys were conducted. To overcome these problems, we develop an observable indicator that allows us to study environmental concern over time and across territories based on big data. The indicator composes of keyword groups that fit with the environmental concern measures revealed by a large-scale survey. We find that keywords associated with climate change, water pollution and waste management are the strongest predictors of environmental concern. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first to use online search data to capture subjective environmental concern.