Specification required? A survey of scientists' views about the role of behavioral economics for assessing environmental policy instruments

Abstract

The conceptualization of environmental policies aiming to promote pro-environmental behavior has long been based mainly upon the theoretical inputs provided by standard economics. As a result of a growing awareness about the limited effectiveness of such concepts there is to be observed a re-orientation of environmental policy toward "soft-policy" instruments. In this connection, social scientists and policymakers have increasingly given attention to behavioral economics as a basis for designing more effective policy instruments. Research concerning this approach and especially its actual application are, however, still at an early stage, and, moreover, the field of behavioral economics is still developing. Against this background, it yet has to be researched in detail, which concrete input behavioral economics might provide for the conceptualization of different kinds of environmental policy instruments and fields of applications. That is the scope of this study, which presents the results of a worldwide online survey requesting scientists concerned with both behavioral and environmental issues as well as heterodox economists to assess (1) the current state of the art of standard economics and its implications for environmental policy, (2) in more detail, the current state of the art of behavioral economics and its implications for environmental policy, and (3) as a central focus, the relevance of behavioral effects, for example the endowment effect and bounded rationality, for different kinds of environmental policy instruments. The results point to the necessity of a further development of behavioral economics that is less closely tied to anomaly research and the analysis of single behavioral effects, and instead takes a more interdisciplinary perspective. The results also indicate the relevance of otherregarding preferences, especially for the design of soft environmental policy instruments. With a behavioral foundation, information-based as well as cooperative-based policy instruments are expected to gain more importance in the future.