Working Papers

• The Power to Conserve: Using Identity Primes to Promote Pro-social Behavior with Omar al-Ubaydli, Alecia Cassidy, M. Taha Kasim, Ahmed A. Khalifa and Michael K. Price
  [GRI Working Paper] [NBER Working Paper]
  Abstract: There is a large literature exploring how social identity influences economic behavior. We present novel experimental evidence on how social identity can be leveraged to promote pro-social behavior. In a natural field experiment on energy conservation in Qatar, we employ two treatments, specifically a religious message quoting the Qur'an, and a national message reminding households that Qatar prioritizes energy conservation. The treatments cause 3 - 4% reductions in monthly electricity use. We show that Qatari citizens residing in villas are more responsive to our messages than non-citizens residing in comparable houses. Using machine learning methods on a subset of customers for whom we have survey data, we show how perceived self-efficacy and responsibility for climate change mitigation moderate response to our identity primes. Finally, we use complementary experiments to show that our result generalize to other decision domains (charitable giving and preferences for public health); and populations (Pakistan).

• Voting and Information: Evidence from a Field Experiment, with Stefano Carattini and Todd Cherry
  [CESifo Working  Paper][CEPR Working Paper]
  Abstract: Biased beliefs affect real-world decisions, including political solutions to societal challenges. One crucial example is environmental policy: people tend to underestimate the incentive effect of Pigouvian policies. Addressing biased beliefs at scale is then paramount. In the days leading up to a ballot initiative in Washington state, we implemented a large-scale field experiment providing information on carbon taxes to over 285,000 individuals. We complemented it with a survey experiment of about 1,000 individuals, with the same treatments as in the field experiment, shedding light on social desirability bias and mechanisms around belief revision. Using data at the voting precinct level, we show that our intervention increases revealed support for carbon taxes, mainly for a treatment centered around earmarking of tax revenue, which was one of the design features of the ballot initiative. We find the effect to be stronger in precincts relatively opposed to the initiative, and less exposed to media coverage of carbon taxes, and more exposed to coverage challenging their effectiveness.

• Deterring Extraction from the Commons: Evidence from an Experiment.
  Abstract: Resource management programs use monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms to enforce quota regimes governing harvest from common pool resources. The existing literature provides mixed evidence regarding the effectiveness of deterrence in strategic choice environments. In a controlled laboratory experiment, this paper varies deterrence parameters, while keeping expected penalties constant, to test the effects of enforcement under four quota regimes governing harvest from a shared resource. Controlling for individual risk attitudes, the main findings from the experiment are that (i) monitoring and sanction mechanisms reduce socially detrimental harvest, (ii) a higher probability of monitoring is more effective than an equivalent increase in the severity of sanctions, (iii) a combination of fines and rewards is more effective than fines alone in reducing socially detrimental harvest in all deterrence parameter combinations, and (iv) monitoring and sanctions are more effective on free-riders than on conditional or unconditional cooperators.

• Preference for policy attributes of tick control programs under conditions of scientific uncertainty, with Allison Gardner and Ganga Shreedhar
  Abstract: Many decisions at the human-wildlife-environmental health nexus are made under conditions of both risk (i.e., potential for negative outcomes) and uncertainty (due to imperfect, evolving scientific knowledge). In this study, we focused on the example of the problem of tick-borne disease management in North America. Tick-borne disease poses a high human health risk, but the decision of whether or how to attempt to control ticks is high-uncertainty due to lack of data and/or expert consensus about the most effective control tactics. We examined willingness to pay (WTP) for tick control programs on public woodland via a property tax in the northeastern United States, a region that is strongly impacted by Lyme disease. We used a discrete choice experiment with 581 respondents to 1) empirically estimate residents’ WTP for attributes of tick control strategies on public land (deer culling, insecticide application, invasive plant removal, and scientific certainty regarding efficacy); 2) examine mediators of preference using constructs from the Health Belief Model (perceived severity of disease, perceived susceptibility to disease, perceived benefits of and barriers to intervention); and 3) explore other moderators of preference heterogeneity (environmental values, risk aversion, ambiguity aversion, Lyme disease knowledge, Lyme disease experience, and demographic factors). We found distinct preferences for attributes of tick control programs, particularly high WTP for programs incorporating invasive plant management and insecticide application, and strong opposition to programs with uncertain quality of scientific evidence for their efficacy. Lyme disease experience and perceived susceptibility increased WTP, and environmental values and risk aversion emerged as important modifying factors. Our findings contribute to new understanding of how individuals weigh trade-offs among human, wildlife, and environmental health and the mechanistic drivers of decision-making. Insights gained from this study can serve to guide conservation, public health communication and vector control policy.

• The Role of Behaviour in Vulnerability to Air Pollution - A Framework and Evidence Review, with Daire McCoy, Antonio Avila-Uribe and Ganga Shreedhar
  Abstract: This paper first proposes a framework to describe vulnerability to air pollution, then uses this framework to assemble and integrate recent evidence on population and behavioural risk factors associated with vulnerability to air pollution in high-income countries. We consider a broad definition of vulnerability, comprised of three interrelated dimensions: (i) susceptibility, (ii) exposure and (iii) adaptation. We advance the existing literature by: (i) developing a mathematical definition which allows us to explicitly decompose vulnerability into different components; (ii) outlining the interactions between the components, in particular how adaptation can mitigate exposure and susceptibility; (iii) reviewing the evidence-base of over 150 articles based on high and middle income countries and examining how susceptibility, exposure and adaptation can interact in systematic ways.

Publications

• Not just income: The enabling role of institutional confidence and social capital in household energy transitions in India. with Anmol Soni
  [Energy Research and Social Sciences, 2023]
  Abstract: Transitioning to cleaner forms of cooking energy is a key facet of sustainable development. Despite numerous programs, the transition in developing countries remains slow and sometimes non-existent. Even when cleaner sources of cooking energy are adopted, their use is often temporary, with households continuing to use traditional energy sources. While literature identifies the importance of affordability and access, factors such as trust in local institutions and social capital remain under-explored. We aim to fill this gap by using household-level panel data to estimate drivers of clean cooking technology adoption and sustained fuel use in India. We add to the current scholarship on determinants of household energy transition by analyzing the relationship between household energy choices and institutional factors and social capital. We employ a logistic regression analysis to examine stove technology adoption, and complement it with an ordinary least squares model to measure factors that drive sustained fuel usage. The results indicate that participation in local community organizations and trust in local government is positively related to both adoption of stove technologies and expenditure on liquefied petroleum gas. Female education and membership in women-led networks also play an important role in driving fuel adoption. Policies aimed at promoting transitions to cleaner cooking fuels should, therefore, leverage community and social networks to promote sustained fuel use. Any national programs should be anchored in local contexts and involve local actors.