Nudges to Improve the Environment in Public Economics[Les nudges pour améliorer l’environnement en économie publique]

In recent years, the literature on nudges to improve environmental quality has gained a lot of attention with the publication of numerous field experiments and the development of theoretical models. By comparing the empirical literature to the theoretical models elaborated, we discuss the main results, but also the main limits of these approaches. In particular, although the first empirical studies seemed to indicate encouraging results following the introduction of nudges, more recent studies exhibit much more nuanced results with, for some of them, no effect of these instruments. Moreover, the current theoretical models, although being a first step, do not yet allow us to understand in a detailed way the psychology of the agents targeted by nudges.