The Role of Information Format in Sustainable Investment Choice

We study how sustainability preferences and information about climate impacts shape investment choices. In a sequential discrete-choice experiment, participants repeatedly chose between a sustainable and an unsustainable asset, with the sustainable option offering equal, lower, or higher returns. In a representative US sample (N=1,003), respondents were assigned to a control group or to four treatments providing climate-consequence information in unspecific text, specific text, graphics, or an external webpage. Text and webpage information lowered the probability of choosing the unsustainable asset by 0.109–0.431 percentage points in an unincentivized round. Effects attenuate when choices affect payoffs. We discuss implications for ESG disclosure.