Alberto G. Rossi is a Hachigian Family
Professor of Finance (with Tenure), Director of the AI, Analytics, and Future
of Work Initiative, of Georgetown University. He is also a Non-resident Senior
Fellow in the Economic Studies Program, Brookings Institution. His research
Interests are FinTech, Household and Personal Finance and Machine Learning.
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/albertorossifrb/home
Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4672645
Abstract: We study the environmental
sustainability of individuals’ consumption choices
using unique data from a FinTech App that tracks users’ spending and emissions at the transaction level. Using a randomized
encouragement design, we show that individuals are likely to purchase carbon
calculator services that provide them with detailed transaction-level
information about their emissions. However, such a tool does not cause
significant changes in their consumption and emissions. On the other hand, services
that offset individuals’ emissions by planting trees
are less likely to be adopted but prove effective in reducing users’ net emissions. Conditioning on age, gender, and income does not
alter our findings. Our results show the challenges and opportunities
associated with the automated tools promoting sustainable behavior that were
initially confined to specialized FinTech Apps and are now becoming widespread
across large financial institutions.
If you would like to give a presentation
in a future webinar, contact our Senior Economist Dr. Wen Chen (wen.chen@luohanacademy.com). For
other inquiries, please contact: events@luohanacademy.com.
