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MORE INFORMATION IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER: THE CASE OF VOLUNTARY PROVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Author(s) -
OWEN ANN L.,
VIDERAS JULIO,
WU STEPHEN
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00367.x
Subject(s) - turnover , environmental quality , quality (philosophy) , public economics , economics , public good , environmental policy , microeconomics , natural resource economics , political science , law , philosophy , management , epistemology
We use a new U.S. survey on pro‐environmental behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge and find that individuals engage in activities that they believe are more effective in reducing carbon emissions, regardless of whether or not these beliefs are accurate. We find that low provision of the public good is greater among people who believe they cannot do much for the environment and do not consider themselves environmentalists. A policy implication of our results is that the effect of more accurate information on the provision of the public good is ambiguous. ( JEL Q50, Q54, C10)