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Nudging à la carte: a field experiment on climate-friendly food choice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2019

CHRISTINA GRAVERT Open the ORCID record for CHRISTINA GRAVERT [Opens in a new window]  and
VERENA KURZ
CHRISTINA GRAVERT*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
VERENA KURZ
Affiliation:
Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food, Bonn, Germany
*
*Correspondence to: Christina Gravert, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Email: cag@econ.ku.dk
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Abstract

Global food consumption threatens climate stability and ecosystem resilience. Because hard regulation of food choice through taxes and bans is politically difficult, behavioral approaches provide a promising alternative, given that they influence food choice to a meaningful extent. We test the effect of framing of a menu on the choice of ordering climate-friendly dishes in a randomized controlled experiment. Rearranging the menu in favor of vegetarian food has a large and significant effect on the willingness to order a vegetarian dish instead of meat. Our results demonstrate that small, inexpensive interventions can be used toward decreasing carbon emissions from food consumption.

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Type
Article
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Behavioural Public Policy , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 378 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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