Incentivizing Self-Protection From Wildfires

Losses from natural disasters can be mitigated through investments in property protection, yet adoption of low-cost risk-reducing measures remains low. In wildfire-exposed areas, managing vegetation and other fuels next to homes decreases structure vulnerability, but few properties comply with best practices despite widespread outreach efforts. We report on two randomized field experiments that incentivized thousands of Oregon homeowners to participate in pre-existing fire department programs to reduce wildfire risk. Across both experiments, financial incentives of $100 to $500 resulted in up to 12% of homeowners scheduling free defensible space assessments, while information-only approaches achieved assessment takeup rates of 3% at most. Responses to subsidies are largest among owners of more valuable homes, while baseline wildfire risk does not predict responsiveness. On-the-ground and remotely-sensed measures of vegetation provide noisy estimates of treatment effects on endline vegetation. Finally, we consider the extent to which the estimated behavioral elasticities from these experiments might shed light on potential homeowner responses to pricing of wildfire risk reductions in home insurance premiums, a practice that is becoming more common due to technological and regulatory changes.