IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inn/wpaper/2024-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Targeted Information and Sustainable Consumption: Field Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Loukas Balafoutas
  • Esther Blanco
  • Raphael Epperson

Abstract

Technological progress offers new and promising ways to provide targeted information to consumers and facilitate behavioral change. We conduct a randomized controlled trial with a global supermarket chain and food producer to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted information intervention that offers consumers individualized feedback about the sustainability of purchased products and close substitutes. We find that the majority of consumers access the information, independently of whether they have bought sustainable or unsustainable products in the past. Yet, providing the targeted information has no significant impact on consumption choices, which is neither driven by inattention to information nor price differentials.

Suggested Citation

  • Loukas Balafoutas & Esther Blanco & Raphael Epperson, 2024. "Targeted Information and Sustainable Consumption: Field Evidence," Working Papers 2024-10, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    • Handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2024-10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.uibk.ac.at/downloads/c9821000/wpaper/2024-10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balafoutas, Loukas & Kerschbamer, Rudolf, 2020. "Credence goods in the literature: What the past fifteen years have taught us about fraud, incentives, and the role of institutions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    2. Eleonora Freddi, 2021. "Do People Avoid Morally Relevant Information? Evidence from the Refugee Crisis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(4), pages 605-620, October.
    3. Brunner, Florentine & Kurz, Verena & Bryngelsson, David & Hedenus, Fredrik, 2018. "Carbon Label at a University Restaurant – Label Implementation and Evaluation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 658-667.
    4. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1082-1095, October.
    5. Momsen, Katharina & Ohndorf, Markus, 2020. "When do people exploit moral wiggle room? An experimental analysis of information avoidance in a market setup," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    6. repec:cup:judgdm:v:4:y:2009:i:6:p:467-474 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. DeCicca, Philip & Kenkel, Donald & Liu, Feng & Somerville, Jason, 2021. "Quantifying brand loyalty: Evidence from the cigarette market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Teisl, Mario F. & Roe, Brian & Hicks, Robert L., 2002. "Can Eco-Labels Tune a Market? Evidence from Dolphin-Safe Labeling," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 339-359, May.
    9. David Dranove & Ginger Zhe Jin, 2010. "Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 935-963, December.
    10. Claudia F. Nisa & Jocelyn J. Bélanger & Birga M. Schumpe & Daiane G. Faller, 2019. "Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials testing behavioural interventions to promote household action on climate change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Momsen, Katharina & Ohndorf, Markus, 2022. "Information avoidance, selective exposure, and fake (?) news: Theory and experimental evidence on green consumption," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Lohmann, Paul M. & Gsottbauer, Elisabeth & Doherty, Anya & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2022. "Do carbon footprint labels promote climatarian diets? Evidence from a large-scale field experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    13. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1082-1095.
    14. Jason Dana & Roberto Weber & Jason Kuang, 2007. "Exploiting moral wiggle room: experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 33(1), pages 67-80, October.
    15. Christine L Exley & Judd B Kessler, 2023. "Information Avoidance and Image Concerns," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(656), pages 3153-3168.
    16. Soham Baksi & Pinaki Bose, 2007. "Credence Goods, Efficient Labelling Policies, and Regulatory Enforcement," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(2), pages 411-430, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katharina Momsen & Markus Ohndorf, 2022. "Seller Opportunism in Credence Good Markets – The Role of Market Conditions," Working Papers 2022-10, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    2. Schleich, Joachim & Alsheimer, Sven, 2022. "How much are individuals willing to pay to offset their carbon footprint? The role of information disclosure and social norms," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S10/2022, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    3. Perrotta Berlin, Maria & Mandl, Benjamin, 2020. "Selective attention and the importance of types for information campaigns," SITE Working Paper Series 53, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics.
    4. Amasino, Dianna R. & Oosterwijk, Suzanne & Sullivan, Nikki & van der Weele, Joël, 2025. "Seeking or ignoring ethical certifications in consumer choice," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126097, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Arroyos-Calvera, Danae & Lohse, Johannes & McDonald, Rebecca, 2024. "Beyond social influence: Examining the efficacy of non-social recommendations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. d’Adda, Giovanna & Gao, Yu & Golman, Russell & Tavoni, Massimo, 2024. "Strategic information avoidance, belief manipulation and the effectiveness of green nudges," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    7. Schleich, Joachim & Alsheimer, Sven, 2024. "The relationship between willingness to pay and carbon footprint knowledge: Are individuals willing to pay more to offset their carbon footprint if they learn about its size and distance to the 1.5 °C," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    8. Stefano Ceolotto & Eleanor Denny, 2021. "Putting a new 'spin' on energy labels: measuring the impact of reframing energy efficiency on tumble dryer choices in a multi-country experiment," Trinity Economics Papers tep1521, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    9. Ekström, Mathias, 2018. "The (un)compromise effect," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 10/2018, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics, revised 16 May 2018.
    10. Marta Serra-Garcia & Nora Szech, 2022. "The (In)Elasticity of Moral Ignorance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 4815-4834, July.
    11. Broberg, Thomas & Kažukauskas, Andrius, 2021. "Information policies and biased cost perceptions - The case of Swedish residential energy consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    12. Gilles Grolleau & Lisette Ibanez & Naoufel Mzoughi & Mario Teisl, 2016. "Helping eco-labels to fulfil their promises," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 792-802, August.
    13. Schmidt, Robert J., 2019. "Do injunctive or descriptive social norms elicited using coordination games better explain social preferences?," Working Papers 0668, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    14. Momsen, Katharina, 2021. "Recommendations in credence goods markets with horizontal product differentiation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 19-38.
    15. Lanz, Bruno & Wurlod, Jules-Daniel & Panzone, Luca & Swanson, Timothy, 2018. "The behavioral effect of Pigovian regulation: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 190-205.
    16. Heinicke, Franziska & König-Kersting, Christian & Schmidt, Robert, 2022. "Injunctive vs. descriptive social norms and reference group dependence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 199-218.
    17. Rachel Croson & Nicolas Treich, 2014. "Behavioral Environmental Economics: Promises and Challenges," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(3), pages 335-351, July.
    18. Lin, Wen & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2022. "Green identity labeling, environmental information, and pro-environmental food choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    19. Kandul, Serhiy & Lanz, Bruno, 2021. "Public good provision, in-group cooperation and out-group descriptive norms: A lab experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    20. Chen, Victor L. & Delmas, Magali A. & Locke, Stephen L. & Singh, Amarjeet, 2017. "Information strategies for energy conservation: A field experiment in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 215-227.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information provision; pro-environmental behavior; sustainability; label credence goods; randomized controlled trial;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2024-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Judith Courian The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Judith Courian to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fuibkat.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.