From Willingness to Engage to Demand: A Behavioral Experiment on Green Consumer Information in a Digital Product Passport

Abstract Existing evidence shows consumers are willing to pay for labeled environmental attributes. However, there is a gap regarding whether consumers have a willingness to engage (WTE) with detailed information. The European Union’s circular economy action plan provides for a new Digital Product Passport (DPP), holding information including embedded emissions, components and materials, chemical substances, and instructions for repair, disassembly and sustainable disposal. In our theory, a green consumer decides how much to engage with information that helps them mitigate their environmental damage from consumption, given a cognitive or time cost. We test the model using a lab experiment where environmental attributes of a good are only available through a DPP. We find education on the DPP’s purpose is key to increasing revealed WTE with a DPP. This is driven by those with a lower stated WTE; participants with a high stated WTE interact with the DPP regardless. Engagement with the DPP increases knowledge and willingness to pay (WTP), as the DPP reveals favorable environmental information. We find no evidence of positive spillovers from the DPP (no further shifts in environmental orientation or increased subsequent behavior), but we find evidence that increases in WTP due to the DPP, and exposure to the DPP, lead to a negative spillover in a subsequent behavior (environmental donation). We further contribute novel measures of stated and revealed WTE, and demonstrate their value in understanding consumer behavior in a theoretically informed manner. Our study provides insights for field testing and rollout of a DPP or similar.