Graduation Year
2019
Date of Submission
4-2019
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Reader 1
Laura E Grant
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
The benefits of converting single-person drivers to alternative transit options are well-established. One option to accomplish this is for employers to provide alternative commute incentive programs. However, the research on the implementation of such programs is lacking. To provide a test, this research analyzes data obtained from a field experiment on daily alternative transit commute choices for a seven-month period. Participants are divided into four treatment groups in a two-by-two design for the first three-month period: incentives with either loss or gain framing, and messaging nudges with either the private or public benefits of alternative transit commute choices. The participants then continue in the field experiment for the remaining four-month period with all groups receiving only gain framing incentives and messaging nudges are discontinued. The results from the two time periods are compared. Loss framing and private messaging have the most significant effect on participants’ decisions to revert back to single-person driving when nudges are discontinued, and thus nudges are not persistent. The incentive program did not provide enduring conversion to alternative transit options, but the results suggest employers who want to optimize their alternative transit incentive programs should utilize loss framing incentives and combine both private and public messaging into continuous nudges.
Recommended Citation
Allan, Mitchell J., "Are Nudges for Alternative Transit Persistent?" (2019). CMC Senior Theses. 2246.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2246
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Business and Corporate Communications Commons
