Social Learning about Environmental Innovations : Experimental Analysis of Adoption Timing

Jamison, Julian C ; Owens, David ; Woroch, Glenn

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: social learning;    endogenous timing;    behavioral economics;    technology diffusion;    environmental innovations;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7955
RP-ID  :  WPS7955

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Laboratory experiments were conducted toinvestigate how private and public information affect theselection of an innovation and the timing of adoption. Theresults shed light on the behavioral anomaly called the“energy-efficiency gap” in which consumers and firms delayadoption of cost-effective energy and environmentalinnovations. The subjects chose between competinginnovations with freedom to select the timing of theiradoption, relying on private signals and possiblyobservation of their peers. When deciding whether to make anirreversible choice between safe and risky technologies,roughly half the subjects delayed adoption beyond the timeindicated by equilibrium behavior -- confirming thebehavioral anomaly found for environmental innovations. Whenthey did adopt, the subjects gave proportionately moreweight to their private signals than to the actions of theirpeers, implying they do not ‘herd’ on the latter.Nevertheless, when the subjects observed their peers’decisions, they did accelerate the timing of their adoptiondespite not necessarily imitating their peers. This resultoccurred even when the payoffs were statisticallyindependent, as if observing prior adoptions exerted ‘peerpressure’ on the subjects to act. The experimental resultssuggest that rapid dissemination of information about peeractions can speed up the diffusion of environmentalinnovations and improve selection among competing technologies.