Institutions and consumer preferences for renewable energy: A meta-regression analysis.

Promoting the use of sustainable energy sources is becoming a major policy strategy in several nations to mitigate climate change and improve energy security. The achievement of a policy objective needs information about consumer preferences and attitudes towards renewable energy. This research presents a synthesis of estimates of the consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for electricity generated from renewables. The paper applies meta-regression analysis to 509 observations of WTP from 91 renewable energy studies in 27 countries. The paper also explores the influence of institutions and other important factors on WTP values. The results suggest that institutions, with their country-specific and survey-specific factors, has a great influence on WTP. Consumers in more democratic and capitalistic countries assign higher values for renewable energy. Further, higher GDP per capita countries result in higher WTP estimates, while larger CO 2 emitter countries lead to lower WTP for green electricity. • The more liberal and democratic are nations, the higher consumers value renewable energies. • Renewable energy values are income elastic. • A larger CO 2 emitter country is less likely willing to support green electricity adoption. • A country with a larger share of renewable energy of total energy production assigns higher values for green electricity. • A country with a larger share of natural gas of total electricity production seemingly prefers the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]