a b s t r a c tEnvironmental damage is often an unseen byproduct of other activities. Disclosing environmental impact privately to consumers can reduce the costs and/or increase the moral benefits of conservation behaviors, while publicly disclosing such information can provide an additional motivation for conservation -cultivating a green reputation. In a unique field experiment in the residence halls at the University of California -Los Angeles, we test the efficacy of detailed private and public information on electricity conservation. Private information was given through real-time appliance level feedback and social norms over usage, and public information was given through a publicly visible conservation rating. Our analysis is based on 7,120 daily observations about energy use from heating and cooling, lights and plug load for 66 rooms collected over an academic year. Our results suggest that while private information alone was ineffective, public information combined with private information motivated a 20 percent reduction in electricity consumption achieved through lower use of heating and cooling. Public information was particularly effective for above median energy users.

Eco-labels emphasize information disclosure as a tool to induce environmentally friendly behaviors by both firms and consumers. The goal of eco-labels is to reduce information asymmetry between producers and consumers over the environmental attributes of a product or service. However, by focusing on this information asymmetry, rather than how the label meets consumer needs, eco-labels may send irrelevant, confusing or even detrimental messages to consumers. In this paper, we investigate how the environmental signal of eco-labels interacts with product characteristics such as brand, quality and price. In a discrete choice experiment the authors examine consumer response to two similar eco-labels for wine, one associated with a quality reduction and the other not. Our results show that respondents preferred both eco-labeled wines over otherwise identical conventional counterparts, when the price was lower and the wine was from a lower quality region. However they preferred conventional more expensive wine from a high quality region. This indicates that respondents obtain some warm glow value from eco-labeled wine, but also possibly interpret it as a signal of lower quality. This relationship held across both types of eco-labels, meaning that consumers did not understand the difference between them. Our research contributes to the literature on information disclosure policies by highlighting important elements for effective eco-labels. These include consumer awareness and understanding of the eco-label, and consumer willingness to pay for an eco-labeled product. Our research emphasizes the need to create eco-labels that communicate clearly both the environmental attributes and the private benefits associated with them.

Eco-labels emphasize information disclosure as a tool to induce environmentally friendly behaviors by both firms and consumers. The goal of eco-labels is to reduce information asymmetry between producers and consumers over the environmental attributes of a product or service. However, by focusing on this information asymmetry, rather than how the label meets consumer needs, eco-labels may send irrelevant, confusing or even detrimental messages to consumers. In this paper, we investigate how the environmental signal of eco-labels interacts with product characteristics such as brand, quality and price. In a discrete choice experiment the authors examine consumer response to two similar eco-labels for wine, one associated with a quality reduction and the other not. Our results show that respondents preferred both eco-labeled wines over otherwise identical conventional counterparts, when the price was lower and the wine was from a lower quality region. However they preferred conventional more expensive wine from a high quality region. This indicates that respondents obtain some warm glow value from eco-labeled wine, but also possibly interpret it as a signal of lower quality. This relationship held across both types of eco-labels, meaning that consumers did not understand the difference between them. Our research contributes to the literature on information disclosure policies by highlighting important elements for effective eco-labels. These include consumer awareness and understanding of the eco-label, and consumer willingness to pay for an eco-labeled product. Our research emphasizes the need to create eco-labels that communicate clearly both the environmental attributes and the private benefits associated with them.

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