Forschungszentrum für Umweltökonomik (FZU)
Research Center for Environmental Economics
Forschungszentrum für Umweltökonomik (FZU)
Das Forschungszentrum für Umweltökonomik (FZU) am Alfred-Weber-Institut dient als gemeinsame Plattform für Ökonomen, die alle an der Schnittstelle von natürlicher Umwelt und Wirtschaft forschen. Wir nutzen theoretische, empirische und experimentelle Methoden, um die Herausforderungen nachhaltigen Umgangs mit der Umwelt besser zu verstehen und Lösungsvorschläge zu erarbeiten. Diese Webseiten bieten aktuelle Informationen zu unseren Aktivitäten und zu den verschiedenen, auch interdisziplinären, Projekten, die wir hier durchführen.
NEUE VERÖFFENTLICHUNGEN
The paper “Cold Case: The Forensic Economics of Energy Efficiency Labeling for Refrigeration Appliances” by Timo Goeschl has just been accepted for publication in Energy Economics.
van den Broek, K. L., Walker, I., & Klöckner, C. A. (2019). Drivers of energy saving behaviour: The relative influence of intentional, normative, situational and habitual processes. Energy Policy, 132, 811-819.
The paper 'Leveling Up? - An Inter-Neighborhood Experiment on Parochialism and the Efficiency of Multi-Level Public Goods Provision' (with C. Gallier, M. Kesternich, J. Lohse, C. Reif and D. Römer) has been published by the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 164 (August 2019), 500-517.
Van den Broek, K.L. (2019). Household energy literacy: A critical review and a conceptual typology. Energy Research & Social Science, 57, 101256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.101256
Schaap, R. & Richter, A., (2019), Overcapitalization and social norms of cooperation in a small-scale fishery, Ecological Economics, Volume 166, 106438, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106438
STAFF NEWS
Mikaële Charpentier joined the Research Center for Environmental Economics as administrative support staff on October 1st. Previously, Mikaële worked for Airbus, where she was project manager and operative leader (language).
Sina Klein joined the RCEE as a postdoctoral researcher in October. Sina is a cognitive psychologist by training and joined us from the University of Landau where she completed her PhD a couple of months ago.
Alice Solda is a new postdoctoral researcher at the RCEE. A behavioral/experimental economist by training, Alice joined us in September from the University of Lyon/Queensland Univ. of Technology where she recently earned her PhD.
Luisa Lorè, from the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, spent September 2019 at the RCEE as a visiting researcher. The purpose of Luisa’s visit was to contribute to our field experiments on the economics of food waste.
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Environmental Economics Brownbag Seminar
Nächster Vortrag:
19.11.2019 Presenter: Ann-Kathrin Koessler (Universität Osnabrück)
Ort: FZU, Seminarraum 215
Uhrzeit: Time: 12:30 - 14:00 hours
Titel: Social influence motivates public commitments to cooperate
Abstract:
Pledges are commonly used to signal an actor’s intention to act socially desirable, e.g. to cooperate in joint efforts to mitigate climate change. Laboratory experiments testify to their potential effectiveness and previous work has examined under what conditions public commitments promote subsequent trust and cooperation. In this study, I postulate that conformity is an important determinant for the effectiveness of pledges that has been overlooked so far. In specific, I examine what role social influence plays in the decision to pledge. In a public good game, subjects can make prior play a pledge to contribute to the public good in the socially optimal way. Across treatment conditions, I vary the way in which the pledges are elicited. In this way, the degree of social influence on pledge-making is manipulated and its impact can be examined. I find that when individuals are aware that the majority of other subjects decided to pledge, they are likely to conform and also make the pledge. The emergence of such a critical mass can be stimulated when the elicitation of pledges is based on previous contribution behavior. Overall, this commitment nudge is effective. Both socially-oriented and previously not socially-oriented subjects modify their behavior after the pledge.
Everyone interested is welcome to attend.
Upcoming seminar dates can be found at https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/wiso/awi/professuren/umwelt/seminar.html
