Nudging to reduce meat consumption: Immediate and persistent effects of an intervention at a university restaurant
Abstract
Changing dietary habits to reduce the consumption of meat is considered to have great potential to mitigate food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To test if nudging can increase the consumption of vegetarian food, I conducted a field experiment with two university restaurants. At the treated restaurant, the salience of the vegetarian option was increased by changing the menu order, and by placing the dish at a spot visible to customers. The other restaurant served as a control. Daily sales data on the three main dishes sold were collected from September 2015 until June 2016. The experiment was divided into a baseline, an intervention, and a reversal period where the setup was returned to its original state. Results show that the nudge increased the share of vegetarian lunches sold by around 6 percentage points. The change in behavior is partly persistent, as the share of vegetarian lunches sold remained 4 percentage points higher than during the baseline period after the original setup was reinstated. The changes in consumption reduced GHG emissions from food sales around 5 percent
Other description
JEL: D12, C93, Q50, D03
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2017-11Author
Kurz, Verena
Keywords
nudging
field experiment
meat consumption
climate change mitigation
Publication type
report
ISSN
1403-2465
Series/Report no.
Working Papers in Economics
712
Language
eng