Climate change and individual behavior

René Bernard, Panagiota Tzamourani and Michael Weber

No 01/2022, Discussion Papers from Deutsche Bundesbank

Abstract: This paper studies the causal effect of providing information about climate changeon individuals' willingness to pay to offset carbon emissions in a randomizedcontrol trial. Receiving truthful information about ways to reduce CO2 emis-sions increases individuals' willingness to pay for CO2 offsetting relative to thecontrol group. Individuals receiving information about the behavior of peersreact similarly to those receiving information about scientific research. Individ-uals' responses vary depending on their socio-demographic characteristics andalso along a rich set of prior beliefs and concerns regarding climate change. Ina follow-up survey, we study the endogenous information acquisition of surveyparticipants and show that individuals choose information that aligns with theirviews. Individuals who choose to receive information about climate changehave a higher willingness to pay for CO2 offsets.

Keywords: Climate change; information treatment; willingness to pay; CO2 compensation; information acquisition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D83 D91 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/251194/1/1793866376.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Climate Change and Individual Behavior (2022)
Working Paper: Climate change and individual behavior (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:bubdps:012022

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