How does government regulation shape residents' green consumption behavior? A multi-agent simulation considering environmental values and social interaction.

Green consumption is an inevitable choice to alleviate environmental pressure and promote sustainable development. Residents' green consumption behavior decisions are influenced by a combination of external government regulation and internal consumer psychological factors. This study incorporated regret theory and environmental values into a multi-agent model to simulate residents' green consumption behavior under various government regulation scenarios. The results show that in the absence of government regulation, residents have little motivation to actively choose green consumption. In terms of a single policy, government subsidy is more conducive to promoting green consumption behavior than government penalty, and the evolutionary trend of group decision making becomes more stable with increased policy intensity. However, neither of the two single regulatory policies can fully promote residents' environmentally conscious consumption decisions. Therefore, a combination of "carrots" (government subsidy) and "sticks" (government penalty) is required to motivate a significant increase in the number of residents who choose green consumption behavior. In addition, the intensity of social interaction between residents is found to influence the stability of behavioral evolution, with higher intensity (i.e., more neighbors) resulting in greater fluctuations in group behavior but driving more residents toward green consumption. These findings can provide a theoretical reference for policy formulation of green consumption behavior.

How does government regulation promote green product diffusion in complex network? An evolutionary analysis considering supply side and demand side.

China has launched a series of regulation policies that promote the diffusion of green products to drive the green development of resources and environment. This study proposes an evolutionary game model of green product diffusion by providing a joint "supply side - demand side" regulatory framework. It simulates the effects of government regulation on green product diffusion in complex network, the related numerical simulation analysis is carried out through a case of electric vehicles diffusion. The study confirms that (1) On the supply side, green subsidies, environmental taxes, and carbon trading market can successfully increase green product diffusion to 0.84, 0.7, and 0.65. On the demand side, green consumption vouchers, as well as publicity and education can increase green product diffusion to 0.7 and 0.67. (2) Among the order-based regulatory instruments, high environmental taxes and poor participation in carbon trading market can inhibit the spread of green products, while low green consumption vouchers fail to stimulate the purchase of green products. It is crucial to enhance emotion-based regulatory instruments like publicity and education. (3) Neither order-based nor emotion-based regulation can achieve complete diffusion of green products. This study provides new insights of green product diffusion under government regulation and its implementation effects.

Will the public pay for green products? Based on analysis of the influencing factors for Chinese's public willingness to pay a price premium for green products.

The promotion and use of green products is an important way to improve the living environment and reduce resource consumption and waste. Green products often have higher prices than general products due to its green attributes. According to the signal theory, purchasing green products can effectively convey the pro-social signals of the consumers. Therefore, based on the price premium characteristics of green products, this study constructed a theoretical and quantitative research model of the public's WTP (willingness to pay) a price premium for green products and conducted an in-depth study on the consumers' acceptability of premium for green products. A total of 991 valid questionnaires were analyzed, and the following results were obtained: (1) The public's WTP a price premium for green products was generally low, with only 30.1% of respondents. (2) The influencing factors of the WTP a price premium for green products were conditional value>green value>functional value>value expression form>price importance. Economic factors were still the main reason that hinders the public's WTP a price premium for green products. When the premium conveys public's pro-social and pro-environmental signal characteristics, it could effectively improve the public's acceptability of premium for green products. (3) The public's WTP a price premium for green products varied with marital status, education level, working years, monthly income, and occupation characteristics. The public who were married, had a master's degree or above, and had worked for 1 year or less and whose disposable monthly income was more than 50,000 yuan and whose occupation was engineers and technicians had the highest WTP a price premium for green products. (4) Policy guidance and media publicity had a positive moderating effect on the path of influencing factors on the WTP for green products. On this basis, this study proposes to deepen the exemplary leading role of the government and attach importance to the education and publicity function of green consumption consciousness. Enterprises should give full play to the influence of reference groups, highlight the value of green products, and popularize green products through appropriate price discount activities, so as to promote the public to participate more actively in the purchase of green products. At the same time, it can also provide reference and enlightenment for the formulation of relevant policies.