Abstract
AbstractHow decision makers respond to behavioral and traditional interventions might depend on their and the regulator's attributes. This online experiment investigates the effect of defaults, recommendations, and mandatory minimum contributions accompanied by regulator information on the private provision of climate protection, accounting for intrinsic motivation. Findings show that all interventions increase the propensity of individuals to choose the focal value. There is no evidence that recommendations and defaults change average contributions. We report a negative interaction of the default with intrinsic motivation. Expert or political regulator information decreases intervention effectiveness. The study improves our understanding of behavioral public policy instruments.
Highlights
Nudges alter behavior without using financial incentives or limiting choice options (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008)
While we investigate preferences towards the target behavior as a moderator of intervention effectiveness, it is reasonable to assume that attitudes towards policy interventions moderate the effects as well
Given the lack of evidence for motivation crowding of a mandatory minimum in this experiment, it is unlikely that respondents from a country with higher support for bans would show motivation crowding, ceteris paribus
Summary
Nudges alter behavior without using financial incentives or limiting choice options (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Default effectiveness depends on its costs for the decision maker (Brown et al, 2013; Choi et al, 2003; Goswami & Urminsky, 2016; Haggag & Paci, 2014; Jachimowicz et al, 2018) These costs can be monetary and psychological. A study by Hagman et al (2015) finds that 77.2% of respondents rate carbon emission offset defaults as intrusive to individual freedom These perceptions likely depend on an individual's intrinsic motivation to protect the climate. Someone highly motivated might rate and respond to a default differently than someone with low intrinsic motivation, ceteris paribus Their response might depend on how they perceive those who initiated the behavioral intervention. A default set by a politician may threaten autonomy more than a default from a climate scientist
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