Does experience eliminate the effect of a default option? - A field experiment on CO2-offsetting for air transport. New title (when published): Are experienced people affected by a pre-set default option - Results from a field experiment

Åsa Löfgren, Peter Martinsson, Magnus Hennlock () and Thomas Sterner
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Magnus Hennlock: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG

No 391, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Earlier research has shown that using a default option has a decisive effect on individuals’ choices. In many cases, however, the low proportion of subjects who switch from the pre-set default option might partly explained by inexperience with the goods or services offered, and high transaction costs for switching. By conducting a natural field experiment when environmental economists registered on the web to a conference, the default option to offset CO2 emissions was randomly pre-set. Either the participants had to opt-in to offset, opt-out to offset or there was no default option, i.e. an active choice had to be made with no implicit “guidance” from the default. We used experienced subjects and had low transaction costs of switching. Our findings show that the default has no significant effect on the decision to offset.

Keywords: CO2-offsetting; Default option; Field experiment; Public goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 D62 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2009-10-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-res
Note: Published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2012, Vol. 63, pp. 66-72
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Published as Löfgren, Åsa, Peter Martinsson, Magnus Hennlock and Thomas Sterner, 'Does experience eliminate the effect of a default option? - A field experiment on CO2-offsetting for air transport. New title (when published): Are experienced people affected by a pre-set default option - Results from a field experiment.' in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2012, pages 66-72.

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