 How much versus who: which social norms information is more effective?Applied Economics, 2016, vol. 48, issue 5, 389-401 Abstract: We conduct an experiment to investigate how different types of information about social norms affect individuals' stated contributions to a specific pro-environment program, a student 'green fee', in the context of a referendum. Compared to students that receive no information about peer contributions, on average, students that receive information about the dollar value range of contributions at peer institutions contribute less while students that learn about the high percentage of students voting 'yes' on green fee programs at peer institutions contribute more. The results are economically significant as the absolute values of both effects represent approximately 25% of average contributions. These results suggest that information about participation rates can be more effective than information about dollar amounts in encouraging contributions to environmental initiatives. Of interest to stated preference researchers, we find that results do not change when controlling for self-selection into survey completion. Date: 2016 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:applec:v:48:y:2016:i:5:p:389-401 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1080803 Access Statistics for this article Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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