A field research to measure environmental pollution awareness in the context of global public goods: The case of Kütahya province

The environment as a global public good and the resulting environmental problems are among the prominent issues of recent years. It is seen that natural and public resources are becoming increasingly inadequate and livable areas are decreasing due to the effect of environmental pollution. It is seen that countries are increasing the ways to eliminate environmental externalities and solutions through taxes and sanctions. Central and local governments are increasingly working to raise public awareness through the measures they have taken to increase environmental awareness. In this study, the survey method was used to measure the awareness level of the people living in the region about the effectiveness of taxes, which are among the measures taken to prevent environmental pollution in the province of Kütahya. The findings obtained from 24 statements directed to 400 people were evaluated, and according to our survey results, it was emphasized that environmental pollution is a problem in the province of Kütahya, but it is not at a very high level, and new taxes may be effective in reducing pollution. They stated that taxes were used for purposes other than their intended purpose in reducing environmental pollution and that they did not have enough information. It was determined that the environmental awareness factor in the study had an effect on the independent variables. A significant difference was found between statements regarding environmental tax awareness and both gender and marital status. Keywords: Global public good, Environmental externality, Environmental awareness, Factor analysis