NUDGING Kan nudging leda oss till att äta mer klimatsmart - Ett empiriskt experiment på IKEA med syfte att få restauranggästerna att äta mer vegetariskt

Abstract

Food consumption generates externalities such as carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. The principal issue is that emissions are not covered by the "polluter pays principle". For this reason, new policy instruments need to be tested and implemented to correct the externalities. In food production, beef and dairy production has the largest environmental impact in terms of carbon emissions. As food is a necessity, simply reducing production will not solve the problem. Instead, a shift towards a more vegetarian-based diet would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per person on an annual basis.

The purpose of this thesis is to implement and evaluate nudging as a policy instrument to increase vegetable intake. Thus answering the thesis questions: "Can nudging affect the choices of restaurant guests to change the number of sold vegetarian meals?" and "is respondents’ willingness to pay for vegetarian food changed by nudging?"

In cooperation with the restaurant at IKEA in Barkarby, nudging was designed and implemented through the concept of “Meat Free Monday”. Surveys were conducted on Mondays (when nudging took place) and Tuesdays (when no nudging took place), to gather respondent information regarding: demographic, diet, opinion, awareness of the human impact on the environment and willingness to pay for vegetarian food. Furthermore, sales statistics from both Mondays and Tuesdays were obtained from IKEA to measure the impact. Results from the survey and the sales statistics were then collated and compared across the days.

The results demonstrate that the average amount of sold vegetarian dishes were 60 on Mondays compared to 33 on Tuesdays. This is an increase by 27 dishes, or 82 percent. From the result obtained by the surveys we found that 18 percent on Mondays stated that they chose a vegetarian dish compared to 4 percent. The willingness to pay for vegetarian food was higher on Tuesdays, however the results were not deemed economically significant as the difference was 2.9 SEK.