The role of households in financing the move towards a sustainable economy: results from a survey in the Netherlands

What sustainable financial products do private households prefer? Do they care only for the low carbon feature or are they becoming aware that sustainability means ESG and not only E? What is the “willingness to pay” (WTP) for that? To answer these questions, this paper uses recently collected survey data on the preferences, attitudes, expectations, and other characteristics of a representative sample of the Dutch adult population. Main results are the following. First, while the ownership of SR assets has risen from 8.5% to 14.7% between 2016 and 2024, stated preferences for Socially Responsible (SR) investments show much less of an increase yet they highlight E is more popular than ESG combined, S or G only, and the size of this difference is substantial: the estimated Willingness-To-Pay for changing from G to E: 1.7%-points difference in expected annual return. Second, the interest in ESG is positively related with a sustainable lifestyle, donating to charity, and doing work as a volunteer. Third, when results are compared with Belgium, Spain and Italy based on analogous SHARE questions, Dutch households