Exploring additional determinants of energy-saving behaviour: The influence of individuals' participation in cultural activities

Consumer behaviour towards energy saving has attracted growing attention in several national policy measures, and has been discussed in a large number of interdisciplinary studies. In this paper, we argue that cultural capital, specifically individuals’ participation in cultural activities, is significantly related to pro-environmental behaviour and is therefore a relevant, additional driver of electricity-saving behaviours. We apply a Heckman two-step selection strategy approach to microdata gathered from the latest sample of the annual “Aspects of daily life” survey for the year 2014, conducted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Our results, besides confirming the role of the socio-demographic determinants already investigated in the extant literature, also provide evidence that individuals who participate in some cultural activities show a higher probability of adopting electricity saving behaviours at home. Furthermore, the sign of such a relationship is differentiated depending on the characteristics of the cultural activity. Some policy implications are derived from the analysis.