“Recognizing to be a part of the solution” towards sector-wide decarbonization of wineries: Evidence from Japan

Last registered on January 09, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
“Recognizing to be a part of the solution” towards sector-wide decarbonization of wineries: Evidence from Japan
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010664
Initial registration date
January 04, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 09, 2023, 5:30 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Hitotsubashi University
PI Affiliation
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-02-28
End date
2023-03-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Climate change poses an urgent and existential threat to the wine sector. However, it is not easy for wineries and farmers to take action to reduce carbon emissions compared to adaptation. How can we promote these actions? Farmers often seek information before taking action, which influences their current risk perceptions of extreme weather conditions or moral norms. Regarding the information, a positive approach focusing on empowering farmers to take action to address climate change is generally more successful at engaging people and minimizing defensive reactions. Given the background that the wine sector is one of the sectors that is suffering most directly and urgently from climate change, momentum is building among the pioneering wineries for an industry-wide effort calling on other wineries to strengthen the sustainability of their businesses, to take part in the decarbonizing wine sector. We, therefore, test and evaluated the effect of a message that makes people aware that they are part of the solution which combines an “influential gain” nudge. Message framing has been an important focus in agricultural policy research, yet many prior analyses have been implemented in an online survey (Kuhfuss et al. 2016) or a lab-in-the-filed experiment (Thomas et al. 2019; Peth and Mußhoff 2020). We used a natural field experiment for all registered wineries in Japan to increase the persuasiveness of the framing of the messages. The investigators conduct a block randomized controlled trial for almost all wineries in Japan to evaluate the impact of the informational intervention on information-seeking behavior: the control group receives normal climate-related information and the treatment group receives information with a positive-framing message as follows: “Your actions will encourage those around you to take action against global warming, and in turn, contribute to the grape and wine industry as a whole.” The heterogeneous treatment effects will also be analyzed. More specifically, we analyze the effects on the following six characteristic variables: (1) production status (amount, established year, in-house brewing), (2) vineyards’ located area (latitude and longitude), (3) export intention, (4) the subjective belief of Japanese wine’s export value in next 30 years, (5) the subjective belief on poor color grape due to high temperature in next 30 years, and (6) awareness of climate change.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kubo, Takahiro, Hiroki SASAKI and Hide-Fumi Yokoo. 2023. "“Recognizing to be a part of the solution” towards sector-wide decarbonization of wineries: Evidence from Japan ." AEA RCT Registry. January 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10664-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The investigators conduct a block randomized controlled trial for almost all wineries in Japan to evaluate the impact of the informational intervention on information-seeking behavior: the control group receives normal climate-related information and the treatment group receives the information with a positive frame message.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-06
Intervention End Date
2023-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcome is the number of registrations to the webinars and the number of participants in the webinars.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
380 wineries are randomized into two groups. We randomize the treatment at the level of the winery. Randomization is implemented by stratification. We stratify our sample wineries based on three variables: (1) a dummy variable indicating the treatment by postal mail, (2) a
dummy variable indicating the response to our survey in March 2022, and (3) the region of the winery (zip code).

See Pre-Analysis Plan
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in the office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
We randomized at the winery level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
380 wineries
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control: 190 wineries
Treatment: 190 wineries
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See Pre-Analysis Plan
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-04
IRB Approval Number
2022FY-01
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials