Good or bad? Digitalisation and green preferences

This paper explores the influence of digitalisation on green preferences based on a theoretical approach by extending Busato et al.'s (2022) model. Environmental shocks, environmental status, quality of green digitalised information, and uncertainty avoidance conditions are also taken into account. The main results show that digitalisation can stimulate green preferences in clean environments in the presence of distortive green information. Otherwise, the green preferences are expanded in polluted environments by the digitalising of non-distortive green information. During growth expansion, digitalisation is a good incentive for green preferences in the last stages of the pre-industrial era, propagating distortive information or, in the mature post-industrial era but with non-distortive information. Green preferences can be maximised under environmental shocks but with a specific digitalisation, environmental status, green informational quality, and uncertainty- avoidance context. The policymakers should stimulate green preferences by supporting the digitalisation process with distortive information, especially in clean economies. Otherwise, policy adjustments should be orientated to propagating digitalised green non-distortive information in polluted economies. The model shapes green preferences in the presence of environmental shocks by taking into account the digitalisation process and the quality of green information as a novelty. It also discriminates between clean and polluted environments in different industrial stages.