More Information Isn’t Always Better: The Case of Voluntary Provision of Environmental Quality

This paper adds to the literature on the voluntary provision of public goods by showing that the warm glow that individuals gain depends on the perceived relative effectiveness of contributions. We use a new survey on pro-environment behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge and find that individuals act in accordance with their beliefs, regardless of whether or not these beliefs are accurate, and engage more frequently in activities that have a higher perceived impact on environmental quality. We find that low provision of the public good is greater among people who believe they cannot do much for the environment and do not consider themselves environmentalists. Ann Owen Julio Videras Stephen Wu Department of Economics Department of Economics Department of Economics Hamilton College Hamilton College Hamilton College 198 College Hill Road 198 College Hill Road 198 College Hill Road Clinton, NY 13323 Clinton, NY 13323 Clinton, NY 13323 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] This work is supported by a grant from the Blue Moon Fund. Owen also acknowledges support from the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. We thank Emily Conover, David Rivera, Joel Shapiro, Jennifer Thacher, and seminar participants at Brown University for helpful comments. More Information Isn’t Always Better: The Case of Voluntary Provision of Environmental Quality