WIDER Working Paper 2015/

: A linear public good experiment has been employed to investigate strategic behaviour in pollution abatement among African climate decision-makers. The experiment consisted of three groups of which Group 1 did not receive any treatments, and Groups 2 and 3 received one and two treatments, respectively. We found that the untreated group (baseline) polluted more than the two treated groups, while there was no statistically significant difference between the pollution abatement of the two treated groups. The results suggest that public disclosure potentially drives pollution abatement and that its eventual withdrawal does not obliterate abatement behavior. We also find that pollution levels differ significantly between males and females. Furthermore, we learned that individuals who thought it was unfair for Africa to reduce emissions polluted more.

[1]  J. Jaakkola,et al.  Awareness of Climate Change and the Dietary Choices of Young Adults in Finland: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study , 2014, PloS one.

[2]  A. Abdulai,et al.  The Impact of Trade and Economic Growth on the Environment: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence , 2013 .

[3]  P. Martinsson,et al.  Conditional cooperation and disclosure in developing countries , 2013 .

[4]  Alexander Smith.  Comment on social preferences, beliefs, and the dynamics of free riding in public good experiments , 2012 .

[5]  P. Martinsson,et al.  Ostracism and common pool resource management in a developing country: young fishers in the laboratory , 2012 .

[6]  P. Ciais,et al.  The carbon balance of Africa: synthesis of recent research studies , 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[7]  S. Gächter,et al.  Culture and cooperation , 2010, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[8]  Aaron M. McCright,et al.  The effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public , 2010 .

[9]  O. Johansson-Stenman,et al.  Internalized Contribution Norms and Learning in a Public Goods Experiment in Ghana , 2010 .

[10]  Benedikt Herrmann,et al.  Measuring conditional cooperation: a replication study in Russia , 2009 .

[11]  T. Sterner,et al.  Which Firms are More Sensitive to Public Disclosure Schemes for Pollution Control? Evidence from Indonesia’s PROPER Program , 2009 .

[12]  Josep G. Canadell,et al.  Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions in Africa , 2008 .

[13]  David Masclet,et al.  Punishment, inequality, and welfare: a public good experiment , 2008, Soc. Choice Welf..

[14]  T. Sterner,et al.  Public disclosure of industrial pollution: the PROPER approach for Indonesia? , 2007, Environment and Development Economics.

[15]  J. Patz,et al.  Climate Change and Global Health: Quantifying a Growing Ethical Crisis , 2007, EcoHealth.

[16]  D. Ariely,et al.  Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially , 2007, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[17]  C. Noussair,et al.  Public Observability of Decisions and Voluntary Contributions in a Multiperiod Context , 2007 .

[18]  Nikos Nikiforakis,et al.  A Comparative Statics Analysis of Punishment in Public-Good Experiments , 2005 .

[19]  Kjetil Telle,et al.  The impact of social approval and framing on cooperation in public good situations , 2004 .

[20]  J. Andreoni,et al.  Public goods experiments without confidentiality: a glimpse into fund-raising , 2004 .

[21]  U. Fischbacher,et al.  Strong reciprocity, human cooperation, and the enforcement of social norms , 2002, Human nature.

[22]  David Wheeler,et al.  Environmental Regulation and Development: A Cross-country Empirical Analysis , 2001 .

[23]  U. Fischbacher,et al.  Are People Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from a Public Goods Experiment , 2001 .

[24]  E. Fehr,et al.  Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments , 1999, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[25]  Charles A. Holt,et al.  Classroom Games: Voluntary Provision of a Public Good , 1997 .

[26]  G. Marwell,et al.  Experiments on the Provision of Public Goods. I. Resources, Interest, Group Size, and the Free-Rider Problem , 1979, American Journal of Sociology.

[27]  Christopher B. Field,et al.  Livelihoods and Poverty , 2014 .

[28]  Benedikt Herrmann,et al.  Antisocial Punishment Across Societies , 2008, Science.

[29]  H. Gintis,et al.  The evolution of strong reciprocity: cooperation in heterogeneous populations. , 2004, Theoretical population biology.

[30]  Adriaan R. Soetevent,et al.  Anonymity in giving in a natural context: an economic field experiment in thirty churches , 2003 .

[31]  J. Levine.  Biomass Burning: Its History, Use, and Distribution and Its Impact on Environmental Quality and Global Climate , 1991 .

[32]  Peter Bohm,et al.  Estimating the demand for public goods: An experiment , 1972 .