IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mar/magkse/202515.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the willingness to pay for sustainable investments differ between non-incentivized and incentivized choice experiments?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Engler

    (University of Kassel, Institute of Economics)

  • Gunnar Gutsche

    (Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics; University of Kassel, Institute of Economics)

  • Andreas Ziegler

    (University of Kassel, Institute of Economics)

Abstract

Based on a randomized controlled trial, this paper compares individual investment decisions in pre-registered non-incentivized and incentivized choice experiments to examine hypothetical bias. Using data from a representative sample of over 2,100 individual investors from Germany and France, our econometric analysis reveals that the willingness to pay for sustainable investments is not significantly higher in the non-incentivized setting than in the incentivized setting, which is contrary to predictions from previous studies. The results are robust to various explanations of hypothetical bias and experimental design choices. Individual characteristics tend to have similar estimated effects on the preference for sustainable investments in both experimental settings. The results of our experimental analysis provide insights into the reliability of previous stated choice experiments and guidance for future experiments in (sustainable) finance. Furthermore, our estimation results improve our understanding of individual investment decisions, which is crucial from a policy perspective since individual investors play an important role in financing the transition to a sustainable economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Engler & Gunnar Gutsche & Andreas Ziegler, 2025. "Does the willingness to pay for sustainable investments differ between non-incentivized and incentivized choice experiments?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202515, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    • Handle: RePEc:mar:magkse:202515
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb02/research-groups/economics/macroeconomics/research/magks-joint-discussion-papers-in-economics/papers/2025-papers/15-2025.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:mar:magkse:202515. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Bernd Hayo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vamarde.html .

    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.