IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeeman/v109y2021ics0095069617307088.html

The impact of environmental recall and carbon taxation on the carbon footprint of supermarket shopping

Author

Listed:
  • Panzone, Luca A.
  • Ulph, Alistair
  • Zizzo, Daniel John
  • Hilton, Denis
  • Clear, Adrian

Abstract

This study uses an incentive-compatible experimental online supermarket to assess whether prior environmentally-friendly behaviour outside the store and carbon taxes motivate sustainable consumption. Previous research suggests that past decisions may influence current decisions because consumers compensate morally desirable and undesirable acts over time, and carbon taxes have been promoted as effective tools to reduce the carbon footprint of food baskets. After controlling for past consumption, results show that being required to recall past environmentally-friendly behaviour before shopping led consumers to purchase more sustainable food baskets. Carbon taxation also strongly reduces the carbon footprint of food baskets, showing no interaction with the task of recalling past behaviours.

Suggested Citation

  • Panzone, Luca A. & Ulph, Alistair & Zizzo, Daniel John & Hilton, Denis & Clear, Adrian, 2021. "The impact of environmental recall and carbon taxation on the carbon footprint of supermarket shopping," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:109:y:2021:i:c:s0095069617307088
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2018.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069617307088
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeem.2018.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel John Zizzo & Melanie Parravano & Ryota Nakamura & Suzanna Forwood & Marc Suhrcke, 2021. "The impact of taxation and signposting on diet: an online field study with breakfast cereals and soft drinks," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1294-1324, December.
    2. Milkman, Katherine L. & Beshears, John, 2009. "Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 384-394, August.
    3. Hilton, Denis & Charalambides, Laetitia & Demarque, Christophe & Waroquier, Laurent & Raux, Charles, 2014. "A tax can nudge: The impact of an environmentally motivated bonus/malus fiscal system on transport preferences," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 17-27.
    4. Hanemann, W Michael, 1984. "Discrete-Continuous Models of Consumer Demand," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 541-561, May.
    5. Panzone, Luca & Hilton, Denis & Sale, Laura & Cohen, Doron, 2016. "Socio-demographics, implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, and sustainable consumption in supermarket shopping," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 77-95.
    6. Cornelissen, Gert & Pandelaere, Mario & Warlop, Luk & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2008. "Positive cueing: Promoting sustainable consumer behavior by cueing common environmental behaviors as environmental," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 46-55.
    7. Donald S. Kenkel, 2005. "Are Alcohol Tax Hikes Fully Passed Through to Prices? Evidence from Alaska," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 273-277, May.
    8. Tiefenbeck, Verena & Staake, Thorsten & Roth, Kurt & Sachs, Olga, 2013. "For better or for worse? Empirical evidence of moral licensing in a behavioral energy conservation campaign," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 160-171.
    9. Rode, Julian & Gómez-Baggethun, Erik & Krause, Torsten, 2015. "Motivation crowding by economic incentives in conservation policy: A review of the empirical evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 270-282.
    10. Ayelet Fishbach & Ravi Dhar, 2005. "Goals as Excuses or Guides: The Liberating Effect of Perceived Goal Progress on Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 370-377, December.
    11. Greenberg, Adam Eric, 2014. "On the complementarity of prosocial norms: The case of restaurant tipping during the holidays," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 103-112.
    12. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2011. "Identity, Morals, and Taboos: Beliefs as Assets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 805-855.
    13. Lahiri, Kajal & Schmidt, Peter, 1978. "On the Estimation of Triangular Structural Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1217-1221, September.
    14. Raj Chetty & Adam Looney & Kory Kroft, 2009. "Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1145-1177, September.
    15. Brian W. Gould, 2003. "An Empirical Assessment of Endogeneity Issues in Demand Analysis for Differentiated Products," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(3), pages 605-617.
    16. Marc Daube & David Ulph, 2016. "Moral Behaviour, Altruism and Environmental Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 505-522, February.
    17. Pearce, David W, 1991. "The Role of Carbon Taxes in Adjusting to Global Warming," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 938-948, July.
    18. Uri Gneezy & Stephan Meier & Pedro Rey-Biel, 2011. "When and Why Incentives (Don't) Work to Modify Behavior," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 191-210, Fall.
    19. Shaun Larcom & Luca A. Panzone & Timothy Swanson, 2017. "Follow-the-leader? Measuring the internalisation of law," CIES Research Paper series 50-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    20. Juliano Laran & Chris Janiszewski, 2009. "Behavioral Consistency and Inconsistency in the Resolution of Goal Conflict," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(6), pages 967-984, April.
    21. Guido W. Imbens & Whitney K. Newey, 2009. "Identification and Estimation of Triangular Simultaneous Equations Models Without Additivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1481-1512, September.
    22. Papoutsi, Georgia S. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Lazaridis, Panagiotis & Drichoutis, Andreas C., 2015. "Fat tax, subsidy or both? The role of information and children's pester power in food choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 196-208.
    23. Francesca Gino & Michael I. Norton & Roberto A. Weber, 2016. "Motivated Bayesians: Feeling Moral While Acting Egoistically," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 189-212, Summer.
    24. Harikesh Nair & Jean-Pierre Dubé & Pradeep Chintagunta, 2005. "Accounting for Primary and Secondary Demand Effects with Aggregate Data," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 444-460, November.
    25. Patrick Bajari & Jane Cooley Fruehwirth & Kyoo il Kim & Christopher Timmins, 2012. "A Rational Expectations Approach to Hedonic Price Regressions with Time-Varying Unobserved Product Attributes: The Price of Pollution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1898-1926, August.
    26. R. Cookson, 2000. "Framing Effects in Public Goods Experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 3(1), pages 55-79, June.
    27. Elliott, Catherine S. & Hayward, Donald M. & Canon, Sebastian, 1998. "Institutional framing: Some experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 455-464, May.
    28. Hunt Allcott & Todd Rogers, 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3003-3037, October.
    29. Prucha, Ingmar R, 1987. "The Variance-Covariance Matrix of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator in Triangular Structural Systems: Consistent Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 977-978, July.
    30. Katie Baca-Motes & Amber Brown & Ayelet Gneezy & Elizabeth A. Keenan & Leif D. Nelson, 2013. "Commitment and Behavior Change: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(5), pages 1070-1084.
    31. Anne Joosten & Marius Dijke & Alain Hiel & David Cremer, 2014. "Feel Good, Do-Good!? On Consistency and Compensation in Moral Self-Regulation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 71-84, August.
    32. Grischa Perino & Luca A. Panzone & Timothy Swanson, 2014. "Motivation Crowding In Real Consumption Decisions: Who Is Messing With My Groceries?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 592-607, April.
    33. Garnett, Tara, 2011. "Where are the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food system (including the food chain)?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(S1), pages 23-32.
    34. Dolan, Paul & Galizzi, Matteo M. & Navarro-Martinez, Daniel, 2015. "Paying people to eat or not to eat? Carryover effects of monetary incentives on eating behaviour," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 153-158.
    35. Grunert, Klaus G. & Hieke, Sophie & Wills, Josephine, 2014. "Sustainability labels on food products: Consumer motivation, understanding and use," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 177-189.
    36. Panzone, Luca A. & Wossink, Ada & Southerton, Dale, 2013. "The design of an environmental index of sustainable food consumption: A pilot study using supermarket data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 44-55.
    37. Anirban Mukhopadhyay & Jaideep Sengupta & Suresh Ramanathan, 2008. "Recalling Past Temptations: An Information-Processing Perspective on the Dynamics of Self-Control," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(4), pages 586-599, August.
    38. Ayelet Gneezy & Alex Imas & Amber Brown & Leif D. Nelson & Michael I. Norton, 2012. "Paying to Be Nice: Consistency and Costly Prosocial Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 179-187, January.
    39. M. Dolores Collado & Martin Browning, 2007. "Habits and heterogeneity in demands: a panel data analysis," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 625-640.
    40. Nauges, Céline & Wheeler, Sarah Ann, 2017. "The Complex Relationship Between Households' Climate Change Concerns and Their Water and Energy Mitigation Behaviour," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 87-94.
    41. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    42. Garnett, Tara, 2011. "Where are the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food system (including the food chain)?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 23-32, January.
    43. Luca A. Panzone, 2012. "Alcohol Tax, Price–Quality Proxy and Discounting: A Reason Why Alcohol Taxes May Rebound," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 715-736, September.
    44. Pierre Dubois & Rachel Griffith & Aviv Nevo, 2014. "Do Prices and Attributes Explain International Differences in Food Purchases?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(3), pages 832-867, March.
    45. Samuel Bowles & Sandra Polania-Reyes, 2012. "Economic Incentives and Social Preferences: Substitutes or Complements?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(2), pages 368-425, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ulph, Alistair & Panzone, Luca & Hilton, Denis, 2023. "Do rational people sometimes act irrationally? A dynamic self-regulation model of sustainable consumer behavior," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Luca A. Panzone & Natasha Auch & Daniel John Zizzo, 2024. "Nudging the Food Basket Green: The Effects of Commitment and Badges on the Carbon Footprint of Food Shopping," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(1), pages 89-133, January.
    3. Shaun Larcom & Luca A. Panzone & Timothy Swanson, 2017. "Follow-the-leader? Measuring the internalisation of law," CIES Research Paper series 50-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    4. Panzone, Luca A. & Lemke, Fred & Petersen, Henry L., 2016. "Biases in consumers' assessment of environmental damage in food chains and how investments in reputation can help," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 327-337.
    5. Dolan, Paul & Galizzi, Matteo M., 2014. "Because I'm worth it: a lab-field experiment on the spillover effects of incentives in health," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60356, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Sophie Clot & Gilles Grolleau & Lisette Ibanez, 2016. "Do good deeds make bad people?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 491-513, December.
    7. Bonan, Jacopo & Cattaneo, Cristina & D’Adda, Giovanna & Tavoni, Massimo, 2019. "Can We Make Social Information Programs More Effective? The Role of Identity and Values," RFF Working Paper Series 19-21, Resources for the Future.
    8. Chad M. Baum & Christian Gross, 2017. "Sustainability policy as if people mattered: developing a framework for environmentally significant behavioral change," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 53-95, April.
    9. Lanz, Bruno & Wurlod, Jules-Daniel & Panzone, Luca & Swanson, Timothy, 2018. "The behavioral effect of Pigovian regulation: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 190-205.
    10. Toke R. Fosgaard & Alice Pizzo & Sally Sadoff, 2024. "Do People Respond to the Climate Impact of their Behavior? The Effect of Carbon Footprint Information on Grocery Purchases," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(7), pages 1847-1886, July.
    11. Panzone, Luca & Hilton, Denis & Sale, Laura & Cohen, Doron, 2016. "Socio-demographics, implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, and sustainable consumption in supermarket shopping," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 77-95.
    12. Tonke, Sebastian, 2020. "Imperfect Procedural Knowledge: Evidence from a Field Experiment to Encourage Water Conservation," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224536, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Dolan, Paul & Galizzi, Matteo M., 2015. "Like ripples on a pond: Behavioral spillovers and their implications for research and policy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Clot, Sophie & Andriamahefazafy, Fano & Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette & Méral, Philippe, 2015. "Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services (CRES) and efficient design of contracts in developing countries. Behavioral insights from a natural field experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 85-96.
    15. Gabriela Michalek & Georg Meran & Reimund Schwarze & Özgür Yildiz, 2015. "Nudging as a new 'soft' tool in environmental policy. An analysis based on insights from cognitive and social psychology," Discussion Paper Series RECAP15 21, RECAP15, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).
    16. Panzone, Luca A., 2022. "Conditional promotion with a costly reward: an evaluation of a campaign to motivate consumption of fruit and vegetables," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322058, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Michalek, Gabriela & Meran, Georg & Schwarze, Reimund & Yildiz, Özgür, 2016. "Nudging as a new "soft" policy tool: An assessment of the definitional scope of nudges, practical implementation possibilities and their effectiveness," Economics Discussion Papers 2016-18, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    18. Bonan, J. & Cattaneo, C. & d’Adda, G. & Galliera, A. & Tavoni, M., 2025. "Social norms and tariff salience: An experimental study on household waste management," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    19. Bonan, Jacopo & Cattaneo, Cristina & d’Adda, Giovanna & Tavoni, Massimo, 2021. "Can social information programs be more effective? The role of environmental identity for energy conservation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    20. Beshears, John & Kosowsky, Harry, 2020. "Nudging: Progress to date and future directions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 3-19.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:109:y:2021:i:c:s0095069617307088. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622870 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.