The aim of this paper is to analyse the determinants of individuals’ preferences towards preventing environment damage. We study citizens’ acceptance of tax increases imposed by governments to obtain revenues which allow the implementation of environmental protection policies. Several probit models have been applied to a micro-data set of European citizens during the nineties, taken from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey. Different factors, such as education, income, political attitudes and social capital, have been found to be significant. In sum, this paper helps to identify the social groups that are more willing to contribute to preserving natural resources.

Key words: environmental protection, taxes, social capital.
JEL Classification: Q26, R22, Z13, I21.