Browsing by Author "Paulsson, Klara"

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    NUDGING TOWARDS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY- An empirical study on the effects of nudging
    (2021-06-30) Fürle, Anton; Paulsson, Klara; University of Gothenburg/Graduate School; Göteborgs universitet/Graduate School
    The transition to a Circular Economy serves an important role in reaching sustainable consumption and production patterns to mitigate global warming. In this thesis, we explore how nudging can promote pro-environmental behaviour to enable a circular transition. We ran a survey experiment consisting of six choice scenarios on four different durable goods where half of the respondents were treated with a moral nudge. The moral nudge reminded the responder whether their lifestyle was more, or less, sustainable than the average. The survey aimed to assess the possibility to alter the individual’s choice towards the more sustainable alternative through nudging. We find that if the respondent answered lifestyle questions before the scenario choices it increased the likelihood of choosing the used goods. The results for the moral nudge only showed a significant negative effect on the probability of choosing a sustainable smartphone. As this result is the opposite of what we expected, we suspect a ‘boomerang effect’. Our results indicate that it is possible to influence the decision making to make consumption more sustainable, however, not with a moral nudge.
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    The effect of trade openness on CO2 emissions
    (2019-07-11) Karlsson, Jacqueline; Paulsson, Klara; University of Gothenburg/Department of Economics; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för nationalekonomi med statistik
    During the last decades, both trade and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased greatly. The plausible correlation between them is, therefore, an important question. The purpose of this thesis was to analyse the effect of trade openness on CO2 emissions. Using a panel data regression, 161 countries were compared over a ten year period. The model used for the regression was the fixed effects model. The effect of trade openness for different income levels was also examined and analysed. The results from the regression showed that trade openness had a positive effect on CO2 emissions, which is in line with some previous studies. It was also concluded that the effect differed between different income levels. For high-income countries, trade openness had a negative effect on CO2 emissions. For low-income countries, the effect was the opposite. The results were interpreted and compared to previous studies. Since the regression showed that trade openness had a negative effect for high-income countries and a positive effect for low-income countries, these results are in line with the Pollution Haven hypothesis. Evidence for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) was found by observing an inverted U-shape relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and CO2 emissions. As long as trade is an important part of the economy, greater efforts are needed globally to ensure that CO2 emissions from trade start to decrease.