Given that economic factors have been shown to negatively impact environmental
concern (Elliott et al., 1997; Kahn and Kotchen, 2010; Kvaløy
et al., 2012; Shum, 2012), one explanation for why we observe no
significant change in environmental concern is that economic
worries beyond those conveyed through income levels may well
have dominated any environmental concerns arising from the Gulf
Oil Spill.