
doi: 10.1111/ajae.12224
How do consumers value conformity, and what are the implications for conservation policy? In this article, we study conformity in homeowners’ landscaping choices—which have important consequences for water consumption—for housing parcels throughout a large arid American city. We use machine learning techniques to generate precise land cover classifications on each parcel from remote sensing imagery, allowing us to obtain hedonic estimates of the marginal value of conformity. Our work is unique as the first to study this behavioral phenomenon using rich observational data from a real‐world market. We then overlay these estimates on a theoretical model to characterize how conformity motives interact with conservation. We find that Pigouvian pricing is roughly half as effective in the presence of conformity, as our estimated conformity effects will countervail price effects. This work shows how behavioral phenomena, such as conformity, may have empirically relevant impacts on the effectiveness of standard conservation interventions.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 6 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
