Work

Air quality alerts and don’t drive appeals: Evidence on voluntary pollution mitigation dynamics from Germany

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper studies temporal factors influencing the effectiveness of prosocial appeals used by policy-makers to encourage motorists to voluntarily reduce driving during temporary high pollution episodes. We derive and empirically validate a theoretical framework for repeated multi-day appeals where the desired behavioral response is sensitive to the number of consecutive appeal days and time intervals between appeal events. Our difference-in-differences event study analysis of traffic flows in Stuttgart, Germany shows appeals reduce traffic by about 3 % on the first three appeal days, but effectiveness tapers off during prolonged activation. Moreover, appeals reduce traffic by about 5 % following a lengthy time interval between appeals and are effective once authorities announce when they will be lifted. Our findings confirm prior North American evidence of limited appeal effectiveness in a novel European setting and highlight the relevance of dynamic temporal factors for voluntary short-term pollution mitigation programs.

Source: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103248

Authors: Alexander Dangel, Timo Goeschl

Institutions: Heidelberg University, Centre for European Economic Research

Language: English

Topic: Environmental and Air Quality Management

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,620