Essays on behavioral economics: Nudges, food consumption and procedural fairness

Abstract

Decreasing meat consumption holds significant potential for the reduction of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions and the mitigation of climate change. Fostering behavioral change to reduce climate emissions related to food consumption is challenging and requires new strategies based on an understanding of human decision-making. The first two chapters of this thesis are devoted to studying the potential of nudging interventions to reduce meat consumption in different contexts. The third chapter explores the role procedural fairness plays for solving a coordination problem. We study how an informal rule in the form of recommendations affects efficiency, and how the results vary with changes in the fairness of the recommendations. This thesis highlights the importance of contextual factors for human decision making and its implications for policy.