Published in

Wiley, Economic Inquiry, 2(52), p. 592-607, 2013

DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12024

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Motivation crowding in real consumption decisions: Who is messing with my groceries?

Journal article published in 2013 by Grischa Perino ORCID, Luca A. Panzone, Timothy Swanson
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present evidence of crowding out of intrinsic motivation in real purchasing decisions from a field experiment in a large supermarket chain. We compare three instruments, a label, a subsidy, and a neutral price change, in their ability to induce consumers to switch from dirty to clean products. Interestingly, a subsidy framed as an intervention is less effective than either a label or a neutrally framed price change. We argue that this provides a new explanation for crowding behavior: consumers are resistant to having the line of demarcation between public and private decision making moved in either direction. (JEL C93, Q18, Q54, Q58, H23, H41)