Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: A Field Experiment on Lifetime Energy Costs and Household Appliances

Kallbekken, Steffen; Sælen, Håkon; Hermansen, Erlend Andre T.

doi:10.1007/s10603-012-9211-z

Cited by 94 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This clearly indicates that trying to convince people to take responsibility, by simply asking, is inefficient. (The evidence in Anderson andClaxton, 1982 andKallbekken et al, 2013 suggests that it is even debatable to what extent providing even richer information, coupled with educational activities, is effective, especially in the long run. )…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can indifference make the world greener?

Egebark

Ekström

2016

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractWe test whether people's tendency to stick with the default option can help save resources.In a natural field experiment we switch printers' default settings, from simplex to duplex printing, at a large Swedish university. The results confirm that roughly one third of all printing is determined by the default alternative, and hence daily paper consumption drops by 15 percent due to the change. The effect is immediate, lasts throughout the experimental period, and remains intact after six months. We also investigate how the more conventional method of encouraging people to save resources performs, and find it has no impact. Recent theoretical and empirical contributions indicate that the default effect works through recommendation, depends positively on the number of alternatives in the choice set, and is reinforced for difficult decisions. We demonstrate that the default option matter in a simple, non-dynamic, decision task with only two alternatives, and where people have been explicitly informed about the recommended course of action.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can indifference make the world greener?

Egebark

Ekström

2016

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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“…5 While there has been extensive work on other aspects of information and energy demand, including Jessoe and Rapson (2014) and many others, only experiments like ours that provide durable good energy cost information are directly relevant to 5 There are some related studies that differ from our experiments on one or more dimensions. Kallbekken, Saelen, and Hermansen (2013) study energy information disclosure in Norway using a nonrandom control group. Anderson and Claxton (1982) study energy information labels but has only 18 units of randomization.…”

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confidence: 99%

Evaluating Behaviorally Motivated Policy: Experimental Evidence from the Lightbulb Market

Allcott

Taubinsky

2015

American Economic Review

350

234

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Imperfect information and inattention to energy costs are importantA fundamental assumption in traditional policy analysis is that people's choices identify their true preferences. In practice, however, many policies are at least partially predicated on the idea that consumers' choices may not maximize their own welfare. Examples include consumer financial protection, taxes and bans on drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and unhealthy foods, and subsidies and mandates for energy-efficient products. To evaluate such policies, it is necessary to extend traditional public finance analysis to allow for the possibility of consumer mistakes and to design empirical strategies that identify the necessary economic and psychological parameters. This paper carries this out in the context of energy efficiency policy.

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“…There are very few studies of actual purchase decisions, as for example, by Anderson and Claxton (1982) or Kallbekken et al (2013). Additional studies on the effects of different energy label formats on households' purchase decisions of energy-using durables are thus desirable.…”

Section: Figure 1 | Types Of Energy-efficiency Labelsmentioning

confidence: 99%