Frequently Asked Questions
Here you find answers to frequently asked questions on the procedure, experimental design, and the requirements for the software implementation of your study.
Please do not hesitate to get in contact with the project coordinators via mail, if you have any further questions.
Design submission & selection
Experimental Implementation (Software)
- One anonymous link per experimental condition to be used on Prolific
- Access to the server on which the experimental software is hosted such that PCs are able to retrieve the data.
- ... send participants to the experiment using an anonymous link,
- ... record their Prolific IDs, and
- ... redirect them back to Prolific upon completion.
The outcome measure should explicitly reflect tangible support for governmental imposition of carbon pricing. This can include support for its implementation or support for an increase in its rate to reflect the social cost of carbon. Thus, real-world support goes beyond merely stating endorsements of carbon pricing within the experimental setup or only supporting its implementation in an experimental game. The outcome measure must be characterized by clear, real-world consequences for support of government-imposed carbon pricing resulting from participants' actions.
The spirit of the project is to tackle the introduction or substantial increase in the price of carbon, aiming to advance towards "social carbon pricing". A social price of carbon refers to a monetary estimate of the economic damages associated with emitting one additional ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This pricing mechanism aims to capture the external costs of CO2 emissions, such as changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damages from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services due to climate change etc. By incorporating these costs into the price of carbon, it incentivizes the reduction of carbon emissions to reflect their true environmental impact.
According to a recent report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the estimates for the social cost of greenhouse gases amount to a lower bound of $120 per ton of CO2. This estimate translates roughly to an added cost of about $1 per gallon of gasoline, reflecting the broader environmental and social impacts of its use. This pricing framework helps guide regulatory actions and policy decisions aimed at mitigating climate change by reflecting the true economic costs of carbon emissions.
For more detailed analysis and context, refer to the table below or the full EPA report on the social cost of greenhouse gases (2023).SC-CO (2020 dollars per metric ton of CO2) | |||
---|---|---|---|
Emission Year | Near-term rate (2.5%) | Near-term rate (2.0%) | Near-term rate (1.5%) |
2020 | 120 | 190 | 340 |
2030 | 140 | 230 | 380 |
2040 | 170 | 270 | 430 |
2050 | 200 | 310 | 480 |
2060 | 230 | 350 | 530 |
2070 | 260 | 380 | 570 |
2080 | 280 | 410 | 600 |
Yes, we will need you to collect Prolific Participant IDs either manually, by asking participants to enter their ID in a designated field, or automatically by retrieving the ID from the URL parameters. To enable the latter, we will universally redirect participants from Prolific to RT's control or intervention conditions adding two URL parameters. (i) PROLIFIC_PID={{%PROLIFIC_PID%}} for Qualtrics, (ii) participant_label={{%PROLIFIC_PID%}} for oTree.
Two illustrative examples of how the links will look:
Control: https://your_design_control.com?PROLIFIC_PID=abc123456&participant_label=abc123456
Intervention: https://your_design_intervention.com?PROLIFIC_PID=abc1234567&participant_label=abc1234567
In qualtrics, you can retrieve the relevant parameter "PROLIFIC_PID" by setting an embedded variable with exactly this name. Please refer to the official tutorial under the following link: https://researcher-help.prolific.com/en/article/fbbd36.
If you are using oTree, the participants' Prolific IDs will automatically be stored as participant_label. Hence, we require you to not use pre-defined participant labels.
You will need to implement the Ex-post survey in your own Qualtrics or oTree instance. We have prepared a document that provides detailed instructions on how to name the variables and the values that need to be stored. You can download the Ex-post survey document using the following link: Download Ex-Post Survey.
Please prepare a completion link at the very end of the experiment (after the ex-post survey) by redirecting participants to https://manydesignscarbon.online/completed, where the actual completion code will be embedded. This will automatically redirect participants back to Prolific and log their completion.
Since we are using a U.S. sample for all designs, please use USD as the currency in your setup. Convert your payoffs from GBP to USD as follows: for the flat fee of £1.50, use $2.00 instead. For the maximum bonus payoff of £3.00, use $4.00. If your design doesn't require the £3.00 bonus payoff, convert your specific maximum bonus amount from GBP to USD yourself and round to the nearest whole or first decimal place. For example, if your bonus payoff is £1.00, use $1.30 (based on £1.00 ~ $1.33 as of September 19th, 2024).
Data usage & authorship
Initially, after data collection, the data from each experiment will be accessible only to the Research Team (RT) associated with the specific design proposal and the Project Coordinators (PCs). RTs can use the data from their design proposal, but are prohibited from releasing, publicizing, or discussing their findings until the manuscript of #ManyDesignsCarbon is published in a journal. After this period, the embargo will expire and all data will be released in the project's OSF repository under a CC-BY license and will be freely available for public use.
For the final paper, which will include analyses of RTs' design proposals and responses to Surveys A and B, the project coordinators will prepare the draft. Co-authorship will be offered to all members of each RT. However, authorship will be confined to those RTs who fulfill all project phases, including those whose design proposals are selected, those who provide suitable and feasible experimental software, complete both surveys, and submit their data by the designated deadlines. RT members will have one 10 days to review any paper drafts before they are submitted for publication.