When energy policy meets free-market capitalists: The moderating influence of worldviews on risk perception and renewable energy investment decisions

Abstract

Whether or not targets to increase the share of renewable energy will eventually be met critically hinges upon the effectiveness of policies to mobilize private investment. However, just as energy policy can create opportunities, it can also create risk. This paper adds to a growing stream of literature at the intersection of energy research and social sciences that empirically investigates investor perceptions of regulatory risk, and their influence on investment decision-making. Based on choice experiments with 29 venture capital investors from Europe and the United States conducting 1064 investment decisions, we show that high levels of regulatory risk have a negative effect on the likelihood to invest in renewable energy. Furthermore, we find that investors’ worldviews moderate the impact of perceived regulatory risk: respondents who expose strongly individualistic “free-market” worldviews are less likely to invest in renewable energy ventures with high regulatory exposure than other investors.