Choice Architecture in Sustainable Consumption Policy

Abstract

The develoment of sustainable consumption should be considered nowadays a major challenge for public policy. A number of instruments,including legal, administrative, economic and information ones are used to enhance sustainable consumption. In recent years, the development of research in the field of behavioral economics has pointed at the possibility of identifying another group of instruments, namely behavioral tools, including consumer choice architecture, so that they promote the implementation of the concept of sustainable consumption. Choice architecture is based on the use of the so-called nudging tools, which constitute a change in the context of consumer decision-making. The purpose of the study is to investigate the use of choice architecture in creating sustainable consumption by influencing the decision context of individuals and households. The paper uses the method of critical literary analysis. Its results have shown the existence of a substantial amount of empirical evidence on the applicability of choice architecture in the process of promoting sustainable consumption. On the other hand, the analysis has also indicated a number of limitations to their implementation. This, in turn, has led to the conclusion that behavioral instruments for increasing sustainable consumption (using the natural tendency of individuals in decision-making processes) can complement the traditional instruments, including direct effects.