Experimental Design
Subjects are hired through the platform Prolific for £0.59 (£8.85/hour) and are asked to complete an online survey on Qualtrics. After completing the consent form, they are randomly assigned to either the control or treatment group. All participants are initially provided with information regarding job openings and their features in line with the idea that they have to make a decision relevant to their career. For this purpose, we ask them to carefully look at all career prospects.
The table below features the sector of the company, distinguishing between polluting and not polluting, and the future yearly wage level associated with each decade the subject would work at the company in question. These career wage prospects are shown to participants and presented in the table below for convenience. For simplicity, the retirement benefits are the same after forty years of work. Options A, B and C are jobs in a carbon-intensive sector in companies that cause pollution and climate change. Options D, E and F are jobs in a low-carbon sector in companies that drive the ecological transition of the economy. The wage level is different across all options. Options A and D show a decreasing wage over the years. Options B and E show a constant wage over the years. Options C and F show an increasing wage over the years.
After answering some understanding questions relative to the career prospects, participants in the treatment group are treated with social pressure. Particularly, they are told that in their community, some of the people would rather not apply for a job in a polluting company because of the damages it potentially causes to their health and the planet. They are also treated with the following information; namely, applying for a job in the low-carbon sector helps to promote the green economy, as well as safeguard the planet. We enhance social pressure for treated individuals by adding that part of their community agrees that opting for a green job is the best solution for society. Subjects in the control group are not treated with any specific information. All participants are asked to make a decision with respect to what job they would like to apply for. They are asked to rank the above-mentioned job options following the order of job applications they would send out, with 1 and 6, respectively, indicating their favourite and least favourite job option.
The survey ends with a short questionnaire. We ask questions relative to their age, gender, level of education, risk preferences, whether they consider themselves extrovert or introvert, and whether they have a small or large circle of friends. Participants are then asked about their employment status, the sector of employment, and the extent to which the company they currently work at is to be considered environmentally friendly. We also investigate their level of concern for the environmental situation in their community, for large-scale environmental damages, and for climate change more in general. In reference to this, we propose a last question where we ask what they think of the economy’s green transition. In particular, we ask them whether it can potentially affect the labour market in terms of creation or destruction of job opportunities.