Working Paper: NBER ID: w19219
Authors: Diego Comin; Johannes Rode
Abstract: We study the effect of the diffusion of photovoltaic (PV) systems on the fraction of votes obtained by the German Green Party in federal elections. Using both regional and household survey data, we show that households that adopted PV systems became more supportive of the Green Party. We estimate that the adoption of domestic PV systems led to 25 percent of the increment in green votes between 1998 and 2009. Our results are robust to instrumentation using regional variation in solar radiation and past experience adopting non-green technologies. We conjecture that these results are driven by cognitive dissonance.
Keywords: photovoltaic systems; green party; voting behavior; Germany; cognitive dissonance
JEL Codes: D72; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Small household PV systems (D10) | Increase in green votes (Q56) |
| Adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems (Q42) | Change in political preferences towards the green party (D72) |
| Increased support for the green party (D79) | Higher likelihood of homeowners adopting solar systems (R21) |
| Adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems (Q42) | Increase in green votes (Q56) |
| Prior household experience with non-green technologies (L99) | Adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems (Q42) |
| Adoption of photovoltaic (PV) systems (Q42) | Increased support for the green party (D79) |