Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

No 391: Does experience eliminate the effect of a default option? - A field experiment on CO2-offsetting for air transport. New title (when published): Are experienced people affected by a pre-set default option - Results from a field experiment.

Åsa Löfgren (), Peter Martinsson (), Magnus Hennlock () and Thomas Sterner ()
Additional contact information
Åsa Löfgren: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Peter Martinsson: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Magnus Hennlock: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Thomas Sterner: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG

Abstract: Earlier research has shown that using a default option has a decisive effect on individuals’ choices. In many cases, however, the low proportion of subjects who switch from the pre-set default option might partly explained by inexperience with the goods or services offered, and high transaction costs for switching. By conducting a natural field experiment when environmental economists registered on the web to a conference, the default option to offset CO2 emissions was randomly pre-set. Either the participants had to opt-in to offset, opt-out to offset or there was no default option, i.e. an active choice had to be made with no implicit “guidance” from the default. We used experienced subjects and had low transaction costs of switching. Our findings show that the default has no significant effect on the decision to offset.

Keywords: CO2-offsetting; Default option; Field experiment; Public goods

JEL-codes: C93; D03; D62; Q53

15 pages, October 23, 2009

Note: Published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2012, Vol. 63, pp. 66-72

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