Lehren aus der Verhaltensökonomik für die Gestaltung umweltpolitischer Maßnahmen[Lessons from behavioral economics for the design of environmental policy measures]

Environmental policies generally address questions of coping with negative externalities or strategies for the use of limited resources. Conventional policies for this purpose often rely on explicit incentives to promote desired or to sanction undesirable actions. However, practice shows repeatedly that these approaches fail or are accompanied by unwanted side effects. In this regard, the study of decision-making processes and motifs of actors involved in the context of environmental policy provides a broader foundation for the design of policy measures between the conflicting priorities of social, ecological, and economic dimensions. This paper ties at this task by reviewing key findings in the field of behavioral economics, applying these insights to problems in the context of environmental policy, and finally deriv-ing therefrom recommendations for the design of policy measures.