1,720,972 research outputs found
How developed countries can learn from developing countries to tackle climate change
Full text linkClimate change and global poverty are the most pressing issues of this century. If insufficiently addressed, climate change will exacerbate poverty and inequality within and across nations. Addressing it requires that people in developed and developing countries adopt new behaviors and technologies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to a changing climate. A major contribution of the 2019 Nobel Laureates consists in providing new tools to advance knowledge on the mechanisms driving the diffusion of non-normative behaviors, by combining social network analysis with field experiments. To inform climate policy, we encourage research that applies this methodological innovation to understand the extent to which diffusion mechanisms may be crucial to accelerate the transition toward greener economies. Scholars working in developed countries have much to learn from recent advances in development economics. We identify fruitful areas for research in the global North
A bargaining experiment on heterogeneity and side deals in climate negotiations
No full textThe recent global climate change agreement in Paris leaves a wide gap between pledged and requisite emissions reductions in keeping with the commonly accepted 2 °C target. A recent strand of theoretical and experimental evidence establishes pessimistic predictions concerning the ability of comprehensive global environmental agreements to improve upon the business-as-usual trajectory.We introduce an economic experiment focusing on the dynamics of the negotiation process by observing subjects’ behavior in a Nash bargaining game. Throughout repeated rounds, heterogeneous players bargain over the allocation of a fixed amount of profit-generating emissions with significant losses attached to prolonged failure to reach agreement. We find that the existence of side agreements that constrain individual demands among a subset of like countries does not ensure success; however, such side agreements reduce the demands of high-emission parties. Our results highlight the importance of strong signals among high emitters in reaching agreement to shoulder a collective emission reduction target
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Politically Desirable Climate Policy in the United States: Reducing Domestic Energy Consumption Using Non-Monetary Incentives
No full textFor decades, significant research has focused on human behavior and its impact on the natural environment. The current climate crisis—along with several other environmental predicaments of the past and present—have beckoned scientists, politicians, and economists worldwide to discover new and more effective ways of reducing the impact of human beings on the planet. In the international arena, America has become the main culprit with regards to anthropogenic climate change, its carbon emissions per capita exceeding that of any other nation. Our consumptive behaviors and apparently enviable lifestyles have at once defined the aspirations of developing countries and distinguished American culture as the primary enemy of earth’s ecosystems and of future generations.
Political motivations and economic concerns at the federal level have prevented the U.S. government from passing significant climate legislation; therefore, it appears that environmental progress will require solutions that limit potentially adverse effects on the economy and circumvent politically disputed market-based incentives to abate. What policies can the government implement that will simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate initiative—which can attract both environmental lobbies and issue-specific voters— without compromising political and economic prospects? In other words, where can we find a “win-win” method for politicians to reduce America’s overwhelming environmental footprint?
I hope to begin this discussion by highlighting the most effective low-cost ways to reduce energy consumption at the individual level. Almost nine thousand pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted from American homes each year, accounting for a sizeable portion (about 17%) of American carbon emissions. What low-cost [economic and] non-economic incentives can cause residents to conserve energy? Moreover, how can the government utilize these methods to move society closer to a locally and globally optimal level of carbon emissions?
My research seeks effective low-cost methods to reduce energy consumption at the individual level by uncovering non-economic incentives that can cause residents to conserve energy. I collected data from a four-week field study in university apartments, where I distributed mock bills to residents with variable types and degrees of information to test the effects of information and social norms on conservation behavior. Residents completed surveys to reveal information on demographics, altruism, civic cooperation, and attitudes toward the environment. Results from a supplemental controlled lab experiment enhance the validity of the study and provide detail regarding the nature of residents’ incentive to lower energy use.
The results of the study hold implications for energy consumption in all residences, particularly those in which monetary disincentives are either non-existent or ineffective in deterring consumptive tendencies (e.g., student housing, military barracks, social housing, and government-subsidized facilities). While the utilization of these methods will not be sufficient in lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to a globally sustainable level in the long run, their implementation will constitute one of the least costly solutions that will be necessary to sufficiently reduce American emissions
E-billing Data and Analysis
No full textStata data and do file used for "Communicating Resourcefully: A Natural Field Experiment on Environmental Information and Cognitive Dissonance in Going Paperless"
Experiments and externalities: understanding cause and effect in environmental decision making
Full text linkThe field of behavioral economics enhances the ability of social science research to effectively inform socially efficient climate policy at the microeconomic level, in part due to the dependence of climate outcomes upon present and future human consumption patterns. Since the behavioral field is relatively new, environmental and resource economists still have scarce evidence as to why people make particular decisions. For this thesis, I have conducted both field and laboratory experiments to address market failures highly relevant to environmental outcomes, namely international public goods problems and externalities from fuel and resource consumption.
My methodology capitalizes upon the benefits of each experimental methodology—laboratory, artefactual, framed, and natural—to capture the effects of particular informational and contextual elements on subsequent behavior. While each methodology has its potential advantages and shortcomings, I contend that the complete toolkit is necessary to study a broad range of relevant environmental contexts. For instance, while natural field experiments are generally considered the “gold standard” in terms of exogeneity and generalizability, many settings in which field experimentation may provide tremendous insight preclude randomization across unknowing subjects. Similarly, researchers may not have access to populations of interest, though lab experimentation may still provide insights into the behavior of these populations or reveal motivations not yet captured in neoclassical utility functions. In this thesis, I will detail results from one of each experimental type, each suited to the context of interest.
The natural field experiment in Chapter 2 aims to discern whether there is a role for environmental preferences and cognitive dissonance to play in encouraging individuals to engage in resource-conserving behaviors, and suggests that the latter may be effective in changing the behavior of green consumers. Chapter 3 presents the results of a large-scale framed field experiment comprising all eligible captains in Virgin Atlantic Airways, which tested the impacts of personalized information, tailored targets, and prosocial incentives on captains’ performance of fuel-efficient behaviors. In addition to documenting a substantial Hawthorne effect, we provide intent-to-treat estimates of the three types of feedback to show that tailored targets are the most (cost) effective strategy of those implemented. I introduce a complementary artefactual field experiment in Chapter 4, which allows for detailed scrutiny of captains’ fuel efficiency based on their social preferences as well as preferences and attitudes toward risk and uncertainty.
I find that more risk-averse captains are more prone to over-fuel, that prosocial incentives increase captains’ well-being, and that revealed altruism increases responsiveness to prosocial incentives. Finally, Chapter 5 aims to provide insight into the effects of “side deals” in facilitating cooperation on international climate agreements. Using a lab experiment, we find that side deals alter the composition of group contribution to climate change mitigation, eliciting increased effort on the part of players with higher wealth
Communicating resourcefully: a natural field experiment on environmental framing and cognitive dissonance in going paperless
Full text linkIn a large-scale natural field experiment comprising 38,654 customers of a renewable energy supplier in the United Kingdom, we randomize environmental information and dissonance-inducing messaging to promote an active switch from paper to online billing. We find that environmental information and imagery is ineffective in inducing behavior change. Interestingly, the dissonance-inducing messaging weakly improves uptake by 1.2 percentage points among our main sample but backfires among a subsample of individuals with doctoral educations, decreasing uptake by 6.2 percentage points relative to a control group. Contrary to the majority of the literature on gender and environmental behavior, females in our sample are less likely to switch to paperless billing
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