Climate Change and individual behavior

Category: Finance Brown Bag Seminar
When: 08 Dezember 2021
, 14:00
 - 15:00
Where: online
Speaker: Rene Bernard (Goethe University)

Title: Climate change and individual behavior

Abstract: This paper studies the causal effect of providing information about climate change on individuals' willingness to pay to offset CO2 emissions in a randomized control trial. Individuals that receive truthful information about ways to reduce CO2 emissions increase their willingness to pay for CO2 offsetting relative to the control group in a within individual research design. Individuals receiving information about the behavior of peers react similarly to those receiving information about scientific research. Individuals' responses vary depending on their socio-demographic characteristics and also along a rich set of prior beliefs and concerns regarding climate change. In a follow up survey, we study the endogenous information acquisition of survey participants and show that individuals choose information that aligns with their views. Individuals who choose to receive information about climate change have a higher willingness to pay for CO2 offset.

 

 

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