How Do Different Designs of Energy Labels Influence Purchases of Household Appliances? A Field Study in Switzerland

Stadelmann, Marcel; Schubert, Renate

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.031

Cited by 77 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For example, Kallbekken et al (2013) conduct an experiment with non-random treatment assignment in six stores in Norway and cannot detect a statistically significant effect of presenting operating cost information to consumers as long as the sales staff receives no supplementary training. Stadelmann and Schubert (2018) investigate purchase decisions of several appliances in an online store and present the EU label, a newly designed lifetime-cost label or none of them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How effective is the European Union energy label? Evidence from a real-stakes experiment

Andor

Gerster

Götte

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Imperfect information and inattention can lead consumers to undervalue the energy efficiency of products, contributing to growing environmental problems and climate change. To nudge individuals towards energy efficiency, environmental certification schemes, such as the European Union (EU) energy label, present grade-like efficiency classes. In a real-stakes randomized controlled trial, we contrast this approach with a control condition that gives no energy-related information and an alternative treatment condition that provides detailed information on the lifetime cost of energy-using durables. Our results show that the EU energy label does not increase demand for energy-efficient products over a control condition. By contrast, lifetime-cost information increases the willingness-topay for energy efficiency considerably.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How effective is the European Union energy label? Evidence from a real-stakes experiment

Andor

Gerster

Götte

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…There is a great consumer demand for products with good energy ratings, which seems to confirm that the group of green consumers is growing. Stadelmann and Schubert (2018), who studied the influence of introducing a new energy label with monetary and lifetime-oriented information that includes energy costs, did not find that this new label affected consumers' purchases more than the EU energy label.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…A clear labelling system is also well suited to the increasing sales of appliances on the Internet because it makes it easier for consumers to compare a large number of appliances based on online viewing alone. With the introduction of higher ratings, such as A+, Russo et al (2018) as well as Stadelmann and Schubert (2018) claim that the labels have the potential to become even more effective in persuading consumers to buy more energy-efficient products. There are, however, studies showing that there is a risk that the energy label A becomes the focus of the consumers' assessment and when adding one, two or three plusses, they could interpret all classes as being more or less the same (Ölander and Thøgersen 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for revising the energy label system for dishwashers: supporting sustainable development and usage through the interaction of energy labels, technical improvements and consumer behaviour

Brunzell

Renström

2019

Energy Efficiency

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Historically, domestic chores such as washing dishes were all done by hand. Today it is estimated that 44% of the households in the EU are equipped with a dishwasher. In this article, we discuss the connections between technical developments, consumer behaviour and the test standard for energy labels. The aim of this study is to provide recommendations for future work that would strengthen the role of the energy label in order to promote the more sustainable technical development of household appliances. Technical developments are compared with the consequences of different consumer behaviour. It was found that technical developments could reduce annual energy use, but depending on the implemented technology, this is often complex and requires additional components. On the other hand, a consumer can easily increase energy usage by 50% without being aware of doing so, when goods are pretreated, appliances incorrectly loaded, or inappropriate programs selected. Our recommendation is first of all to encourage the use of dishwashers as they consume less energy and water compared with washing up manually. A holistic approach should be taken to updating the energy labelling system. Actual consumer behaviour must be taken into account and, perhaps most importantly , as dishwashers are becoming ever more energy efficient, consumers must be educated in using the machines in an environmentally friendly way. We conclude that the energy labelling system is outdated; it must be fundamentally revised and must take into account consumer behaviour.

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“…Moreover, Andor et al (2017) and Houde (2018) find that consumers have a positive willingness-to-pay for products with a high efficiency ranking, which can even exceed the economic value of the underlying energy use differences. Other studies have analyzed the implications of adding operating cost information to energy labels, yielding mixed results (Andor et al, 2017;Newell and Siikamäki, 2014;Stadelmann and Schubert, 2018). Using revealed rather than stated preferences, Andor et al (2019) demonstrate that providing lifetime energy cost information substantially increases the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for energy-efficient light bulbs, while the current EU label has no effect on WTP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive reflection and the valuation of energy efficiency

2019

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Based on a stated-choice experiment among about 3,600 German household heads on the purchase of electricity-using durables, this paper explores the impact of cognitive reflection on consumers' valuation of energy efficiency, as well as its interaction with consumers' response to the EU energy label. Using a standard cognitive reflection test, our results indicate that consumers with low cognitive reflection scores value energy efficiency less than those with high scores. Furthermore, we find that consumers with a low level of cognitive reflection respond more strongly to grade-like energy efficiency classes than to detailed information on annual energy use.

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How Do Different Designs of Energy Labels Influence Purchases of Household Appliances? A Field Study in Switzerland

Cited by 77 publications

References 26 publications

How effective is the European Union energy label? Evidence from a real-stakes experiment

How effective is the European Union energy label? Evidence from a real-stakes experiment

Recommendations for revising the energy label system for dishwashers: supporting sustainable development and usage through the interaction of energy labels, technical improvements and consumer behaviour

Cognitive reflection and the valuation of energy efficiency

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