Moral Cost of Carbon Revisited

Last registered on November 15, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Moral Cost of Carbon Revisited

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0014825

Initial registration date

November 13, 2024

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

November 15, 2024, 1:52 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Sebastien Houde

Affiliation

HEC Lausanne

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Corinne Faure

PI Affiliation

Grenoble Ecole de Management

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Joachim Schleich

PI Affiliation

Grenoble Ecole de Management

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-05-21

End date

2026-01-31

Keywords

Environment & Energy

Additional Keywords

Carbon Pricing, Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, Information Disclosure, Field Experiment

JEL code(s)

D12, D62, D83, H23, H31

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to estimate the implicit price of carbon that people apply in their consumption decisions, which we call the Moral Cost of Carbon (MCC). We use an artefactual field experiment to recover a distribution of the MCC among a target population. We also investigate whether particular information treatment could impact the MCC. In this study, our focus is to identify sources of heterogeneity across domains, specifically food versus transport, in the distribution of the MCC.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Faure, Corinne , Sebastien Houde and Joachim Schleich. 2024. "Moral Cost of Carbon Revisited." AEA RCT Registry. November 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14825-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We conduct an online survey where we ask participants to choose between actual holiday packages that differ in their carbon footprint. The main part of the survey consists of a sequence of multiple price list (MPL) questions and belief elicitations on two actual holiday packages for a week-end in Lyon (one with low, one with high carbon footprint). Both packages are a combination of transportation to Lyon (in a diesel car versus in an electric car), and a gastronomic meal (meat-based versus vegetarian menu).

Intervention Start Date

2024-11-21

Intervention End Date

2025-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

WTA elicited with MPLs and elicitated beliefs. MCC constructed with WTA.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The MCC is constructed using the within variation in carbon disclosure. This is the difference in WTA before and after disclosure divided by the change in beliefs.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Non-incentivized WTA will also be analyzed for non-switchers.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

In a first step, willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the transport and food components of the two packages and beliefs about carbon footprint are elicited for all participants (baseline MPL). In a second step, the participants are presented the carbon footprint of the transport and food components of the packages. Information on both holiday packages’ carbon footprint is provided based on realistic estimates of the package components. We repeat the MPL and belief elicitation tasks for all participants, which allows us to infer the implicit price of carbon that people apply in this context. In a third step, MPLs are used to elicit WTA for the two packages when information about the social cost of carbon and the MCC of other citizen are disclosed. Finally, additional demographic and psychographic variables are collected and used to investigate heterogeneity in the MCC.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Participant-level

Was the treatment clustered?