Cultural worldviews, institutional rules and the willingness to participate in green energy programs

Abstract This paper demonstrates that cultural worldviews and institutional rules interact to determine the likelihood of participating in a utility green energy program. We use a stated-preference survey experiment to elicit willingness to participate in a hypothetical program in which customers pay a premium for receiving a fraction of their electricity from renewable sources. Respondents also answer questions that provide a relative ranking of their worldviews across two dimensions – individualism-communitarianism and hierarchical-egalitarian. Presuming communitarian and egalitarian attitudes are consistent with collective and equal action, respectively, people with these attitudes are expected to respond positively to institutions that assure greater participation. We find that cultural worldviews significantly explain people’s willingness to participate. In particular, people with communitarian and egalitarian worldviews are significantly affected by the different institutional rules, while the participation of those with individualistic or hierarchical worldviews is generally unaffected by the type of institution.