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The latest four editions of the briq policy monitor use a large representative sample of adults in Germany to document their attitudes towards climate change and the individual willingness to engage in climate protection, measured through an incentivized donation decision and questions related to climate-friendly behaviors.

Willingness to act against climate change

A broad majority of Germans is willing to donate a part of a freely disposable sum of money to climate protection. Higher income, economic preferences such as altruism or patience, and party preferences predict pro-climate donations. Moreover, a majority of Germans say they take the climate impact into account when deciding about consumption and transportation.

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➥ briq policy monitor #3

Social norms in the fight against climate change

Germans misperceive the prevalent social norms and the willingness of others to act against climate change. The systematic underestimation of climate norms affects people’s willingness to fight climate change. Correcting these misperceptions can have a positive impact on climate protection.

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➥ briq policy monitor #4

Climate change skepticism and excuses

A vast majority of Germans is convinced that climate change exists and that it is anthropogenic. However, 22 percent of respondents expressed skepticism about climate change. Reasons might be low trust in science or the widespread misconception that there is no scientific consensus on climate change. Most arguments against additional climate protection do not find support among Germans.

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➥ briq policy monitor #5

Concerns about climate protection and discontent with climate policy

Germans consider the government’s current climate action inadequate. Many would be willing to give up some individual freedom for better climate protection. This willingness is in line with a widespread concern about climate change and its consequences. A majority would be in favor of a “climate solidarity tax” to help poorer households cope with the costs of climate protection.

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➥ briq policy monitor #6

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Read also the previous issues of the briq policy monitor:

• bpm #1: Germans’ Willingness to Pay for Gas and Heating
• bpm #2: Sanctions on Russia, Aid to Ukraine, and Energy for Germany

briq Visiting Professor Ulrike Malmendier has been appointed to the German Council of Economic Experts in August 2022. This body of independent experts, consisting of five members appointed for five years, is mandated by the federal government to present a periodic assessment of Germany’s macroeconomic development. Their expertise is meant to help both economic policymakers and the general public make informed decisions.

Ulrike Malmendier is among the top five percent of the world’s most cited economists. After completing a doctorate in Law at the University of Bonn, she received her doctorate in Business Economics from Harvard University in 2002. Her main research interests are in behavioral economics and behavioral finance, also including corporate finance, household finance, economics of organizations, and contract theory. She is currently a Professor of Finance and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Chair of the briq Scientific Council.

Read more (in German):

• SZ: „Die Weisen werden weiblich“
• FAZ: Interview mit Ulrike Malmendier
• Wiwo: Sind Ältere die besseren Zentralbanker?

Starting in the summer of 2022, Botond Kőszegi will become a full-time professor at briq. He is currently University Professor at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, after previous positions at the University of California, Berkeley, and a visiting position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Holding a BA in mathematics from Harvard University in 1996, he received his PhD in economics from the MIT in 2000 as one of the first students to write a PhD thesis entirely on behavioral economics.

Having visited many times, I already know briq very well, and have experienced the intense and friendly environment that makes it a center of behavioral-economics research. I look forward to being part of it full time and helping to grow it further!

Over the past two decades he has published extensively on behavioral-economics topics – including several lead articles – in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the European Economic Association, and Journal of Public Economics. He was also Managing Editor at the Review of Economic Studies.

Focusing primarily on the theoretical foundations of behavioral economics, Botond has produced research on self-control problems and the consumption and regulation of harmful products, self-image and anticipatory utility, reference-dependent preferences and loss aversion, markets for deceptive products, and misguided learning.

He has received European Research Council Grants in 2012 and 2018, and the Yrjö Jahnsson Award, a biennial award for the best economist in Europe under the age of 45, in 2015 (see video below).

“I am extremely happy, both academically and personally, that Botond will join us. This will clearly boost our behavioral economics research at briq and Bonn. Absolutely terrific!” said briq director Armin Falk.

Competitiveness is an individual trait that has been shown to be highly predictive of career choices and labor market outcomes and for which a strong gender gap is often found. Gender differences in preferences for competition might therefore provide a partial explanation for gender disparities in career choices, such as differential selection into STEM fields or finance.

A new study by Teodora Boneva, Thomas Buser, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse provides causal evidence on the impact of socioeconomic background at a young age on preferences for competition and gender differences in these preferences. The analysis is based on the briq family panel, consisting of families living in the German cities of Bonn and Cologne with children born between 2002 and 2004.

To isolate results on the effects of a change to the social environment, around 30 percent of the children in the sample were randomly assigned to a well-established and intensive mentoring program called “Baloo and You”. For a period of about one year, children are provided with a mentor whose brief it is to act as a role model and to enrich the social environment. Volunteer mentors are predominantly university students, and all girls are assigned to a female mentor, thereby exposing girls of low socioeconomic status (SES) to a successful female role model.

Mother’s competitiveness matters for girls

A first finding indicating a potential positive effect of the mentoring program is that the mother’s competitiveness has a positive effect on girls but not on boys. Thus, female role models might be particularly important for shaping girl’s competitiveness.

The broader results confirm earlier findings of significant differences in competitiveness between girls and boys, however the gender gap registered for adolescents with low socioeconomic background stands out. Socioeconomically disadvantaged girls are 4.5 times more likely to be found at the bottom of the competitiveness distribution than boys with comparable SES. On the other hand, girls profiting from a more favorable background (high SES) are “only” twice as likely to show very low competitiveness in comparison to boys with high SES.

The mentoring intervention significantly narrows the gender difference in competitiveness by increasing girls’ willingness to compete especially among those most averse to competition. The gap between the gender differences in competitiveness of the disadvantaged and the advantaged group is closed entirely.

Mentees raise their earnings expectations

A similar pattern emerges for earnings expectations. About six years after the intervention the authors administered a questionnaire in which they elicit the adolescents believe about their earnings at age 30. While the teenagers in this sample have not entered the labor market yet, data shows that there are already large gender gaps regarding expected earnings at this age, especially among the group of low SES adolescents.

Girls with poor socioeconomic background expect 36.7% lower earnings than boys exposed to a similar social environment. The gender gap in the group with high SES is only 8.8%. The intervention reduced the gender gap in the low SES group by 23.3 percentage points to 13.4%, which is statistically indistinguishable from the gender gap in the high SES group.

Taken together, the results suggest that girls with low socioeconomic status are doubly disadvantaged, by both their socioeconomic background and their gender, but that interventions can partially mitigate this disadvantage. The results have important policy implications: Providing adolescents with an enriched social environment may not only result in better outcomes for disadvantaged children but may also lead to a significant reduction in gender inequality.