Sustainable Consumption: What Works Best, Carbon Taxes, Subsidies and/or Nudges?

Abstract Behavioral change techniques may show positive changes to sustainable consumption, but as with many other domains, how they interact with other typical regulatory measures is unknown. To address the empirical lacuna, the present study uses a discrete-choice set-up to simulate a lunchtime canteen in order to investigate the effects of choice preserving and choice incentivizing interventions on meal choices. Carbon tax (Experiment 1, Experiment 2) alone, behavioral interventions (Experiment 1) alone, as well in combination (Experiment 1, Experiment 2) shifted choices to a less degree than in combination. The most compelling positive behavioral change was found when introducing a redistributive pricing system that combines carbon tax and subsidies (Experiment 2), in combination with choice preserving instruments (Experiment 2, Experiment 3).