Climate Change and Individual Behavior

We study the causal effect of providing information about climate change on individuals’ willingness to pay to offset carbon emissions in a survey experiment. Receiving truthful information about ways to reduce CO2 emissions increases individuals’ willingness to pay for voluntary CO2 offsetting by 50% relative to the control group. Individuals’ responses vary with socio-demographic characteristics and along a rich set of prior beliefs and concerns regarding climate change. In a follow-up survey, we study the endogenous information acquisition of survey participants and show individuals choose information that aligns with their views.

Keywords: Climate change, information treatment, willingness to pay, CO2 compensation, information acquisition.

JEL Classification: D10, D83, D91, Q54

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Bernard, René and Tzamourani, Panagiota and Weber, Michael, Climate Change and Individual Behavior (September 22, 2023). Chicago Booth Research Paper No. 22-13, Fama-Miller Working Paper, University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2022-66, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4112620 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4112620