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- Title
A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Carbon-Neutral Home Energy Enrollment.
- Authors
Gelino, Brett W.; Kaplan, Brent A.; Reed, Derek D.
- Abstract
This study demonstrates behavioral economic task sensitivity in the context of "green" consumerism, specifically carbon-neutral home energy enrollment. Task respondents reported their likelihood of enrolling with a hypothetical home energy supplier via a medium (i.e., simulated task) closely resembling an actual choice context (i.e., energy provider web portal). We described enrollment probability across prices and generated demand metrics using field-standard nonlinear modeling. Model outputs were consistent with extant behavioral economic literature in internal consistency (i.e., correlations among derived demand metrics) and data quality (i.e., the proportion of nonsystematic flagging). We then used hierarchical linear regression to assess the degree to which demand metrics predict ecological concern. Results revealed a predictive relation between the demand sensitivity metric α (alpha) and sum scores on the New Ecological Paradigm Scale such that those respondents most willing to continue paying for green energy at increasing prices were also those expressing greatest concern over human–environment relations. This preliminary predictive validation underscores the task's ability to contact relevant ecological decision-making contexts. Overall findings support task use as an evaluative instrument in prospective community intervention (as in evaluating contextual influences) and underscore the viable application of behavioral economic methods to better understand "green" consumer preferences.
- Subjects
BEHAVIORAL assessment; WEB portals; WILLINGNESS to pay; CONSUMER preferences; CLEAN energy; PRICES; CONTEXTUAL analysis; ALTMETRICS
- Publication
Behavior & Social Issues, 2023, Vol 32, Issue 2, p517
- ISSN
1064-9506
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s42822-023-00143-4