The less you burn, the more we earn: The role of social and political trust on energy-saving behaviour in Europe

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the importance of considering behavioural aspects when forging energy policies. Trust in both institutions and peers improves pro-social behaviour and, as a consequence, leads to more responsible energy consumption. Data collected from the 8th round of the European Social Survey were used to build three indexes by which to measure political trust, social trust, and energy-saving habits. The empirical analysis confirms that social and political trust positively affect people’s propensity to reduce domestic energy consumption. Furthermore, the results emphasize how the social context positively impacts citizens’ pro-active role in reducing negative externalities. An interesting corollary concerns the effect of political trust on pro-social behaviour: it is stronger in socio-democratic countries, and virtually non-existent in liberal ones. Overall, government policies should not be based solely on a taxation/subside approach, but effort should be made to enhance the citizen-to-citizen and citizen-to-state interplay.