システム情報系　社会工学域　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    

          平成25年度　　ファカルティ・セミナー

                       (Faculty Seminar)

 日　時　：　2013年10月11日(金)　　16:30-18:00

場　所　：　第三学群F棟　3F1102

講演者　：　作道 真理　[　日本政策投資銀行  ]

司会者　：　石川　竜一郎

演　題　：　Do Social Norms Matter to Energy Saving Behavior? Endogenous Social and Correlated Effects

                            ＜ abstract ＞

 Social norms have received growing attention as a potential driver for pro-environmental behavior partly due to ample evidence based on survey data. Using data from a Japanese household survey on energy saving behavior, we estimate a structural model of social interactions that accounts for methodological issues that lie in survey data: simultaneity, common shocks and nonrandom group selection. We find that the influence of social norms on energy saving behavior is small, if any, or insignificant, while estimates from standard methods in the literature are found to be large and highly significant as in previous studies. Our results suggest that evidence in previous survey-based studies may mainly reflect correlation in unobserved characteristics between members in a group, not the influence of social norms.