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The Effect of Culture on Energy Efficient Vehicle Ownership

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Abstract

We provide an empirical analysis on the relation between culture and revealed environmental economic preferences. Switzerland's citizens share all major institutions but belong to multiple population groups which differ by culture and language across distinct geographical locations. This unique setting allows us to disentangle the effect of culture on individual consumer preferences from institutional characteristics. We use a spatial fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) at the internal French/German language border on municipality level data to estimate the effect of culture on preferences for energy efficient vehicle design. Our results indicate that French speaking municipalities have a 5.5 percentage points higher share of energy efficient vehicles compared to their German counterparts. In addition, we find that popular votes on environmental issues receive a substantially higher share of approval in French speaking regions. This indicates that they place a higher value on the environment, which may be due to a higher sense of collectivism and altruism.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Filippini & Tobias Wekhof, 2018. "The Effect of Culture on Energy Efficient Vehicle Ownership," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 17/278, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:17-278
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    2. Epstein, Lucas & Muehlegger, Erich, 2024. "Ideology, Incidence and the Political Economy of Fuel Taxes: Evidence from California 2018 Proposition 6," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt6k58771s, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    3. David Wuepper & Robert Finger, 2023. "Regression discontinuity designs in agricultural and environmental economics," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(1), pages 1-28.
    4. Nicola Francescutto, 2024. "Retirement decision and household's gasoline consumption: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," IRENE Working Papers 24-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    5. Song, Chun & Petsakos, Athanasios & Gotor, Elisabetta, 2024. "Linguistic diversity, climate shock, and farmers-herder conflicts: Implications for inclusive innovations for agro-pastoralism systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    6. Yongliang Yang & Yuting Zhu & Xiaopeng Wang & Yi Li, 2022. "The Perception of Environmental Information Disclosure on Rural Residents’ Pro-Environmental Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Francescutto, Nicola, 2025. "Retirement decision and household’s gasoline consumption: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Wang, Yanbing & Schaub, Sergei & Wuepper, David & Finger, Robert, 2023. "Culture and agricultural biodiversity conservation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    9. Neha Deopa & Daniele Rinaldo, 2023. "Sacred Ecology," Papers 2401.13673, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2025.
    10. El Benni, Nadja & Irek, Judith & Finger, Robert & Mack, Gabriele & Ammann, Jeanine, 2024. "Citizens’ perceptions of agricultural policy goals—evidence from Switzerland," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Weitao Zhang & Adaviah Mas’od & Zuraidah Sulaiman, 2022. "Moderating Effect of Collectivism on Chinese Consumers’ Intention to Adopt Electric Vehicles—An Adoption of VBN Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-35, September.
    12. Muehlegger, Erich & Rapson, David S., 2022. "Subsidizing low- and middle-income adoption of electric vehicles: Quasi-experimental evidence from California," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    13. Mehdi Farsi & Martin Peclat & Michael Puntiroli & Sylvain Weber, 2025. "Energy cultures and language border in Switzerland," IRENE Working Papers 25-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    14. Brückmann, Gracia, 2022. "Test-drives & information might not boost actual battery electric vehicle uptake?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 204-218.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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