Nudging households' sustainable investments: results from a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment in two Italian cities

This paper investigates households' willingness to pay for sustainable investments using evidence from a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment run in different branches of a large Italian bank. The analysis reveals three main results. First, the willingness to pay is lower for graduated individuals, higher for those with a medium investment horizon, for those engaged in volunteering and for those concerned about climate change. Second, the exposure to a negative (vs. positive) visual treatment, causes an average increase in the willingness to pay for Environmental, Social, and Governance assets, albeit this effect vanishes once controls are added. Third, when dissecting results by the factor of interest, the negative visual treatment significantly increases the willingness to pay among the investors interested in the Environmental dimension only. This suggests that, with suitable leverage, the demand and willingness to pay for all sustainability dimensions can be nudged, with important industry and policy implications. • We investigate households' willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable investments. • We rely on a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment run in different branches of a large Italian bank, located in two different Italian cities. • We find that the WTP is lower for graduated individuals, higher for those with a medium investment horizon, for those engaged in volunteering and for those concerned about climate change. Moreover, the exposure to a negative (vs positive) visual treatment increases the WTP for sustainable assets, albeit this effect is limited to the investors interested in the Environmental dimension only. • We conclude that the demand and the WTP for sustainable assets can be nudged with suitable leverage, with important industry and policy implications.