Tools- of Changes

Willingness to Pay for Voluntary Carbon Offsets

This open-access article describes a randomized control trial on a large, representative sample of German households that found that providing information on ways to reduce CO2 emissions causally increased willingness to pay for voluntary carbon offsets. Norms had a somewhat stronger impact compared to information framed as scientific research. The treatment effect varied with sociodemographic characteristics and individuals' prior stance towards climate change. Individuals tended to choose information that aligned with their prior views.

Participants were randomly assigned to four treatment groups and one control group. Two groups received information framed as scientific research (either general research or research by the federal government) and two groups received information on the behavior of people similar to them (either Germans in their age cohort or Germans in general.)