Peer-to-Peer Solar and Social Rewards: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Stefano Carattini, Kenneth Gillingham, Xiangyu Meng and Erez Yoeli

No 10173, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Observability has been demonstrated to influence the adoption of pro-social behavior in a variety of contexts. This study implements a field experiment to examine the influence of observability in the context of a novel pro-social behavior: peer-to-peer solar. Peer-to-peer solar offers an opportunity to households who cannot have solar on their homes to access solar energy from their neighbors. However, unlike solar installations, peer-to-peer solar is an invisible form of pro-environmental behavior. We implemented a set of randomized campaigns using Facebook ads in the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in partnership with a peer-to-peer company. In the campaigns, treated customers were informed that they could share “green reports” online, providing information to others about their greenness. We find that interest in peer-to-peer solar increases by up to 30% when “green reports,” which would make otherwise invisible behavior visible, are mentioned in the ads.

Keywords: peer to peer solar; pro-environmental behavior; social rewards; visibility; Facebook (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D91 Q20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-net, nep-pay, nep-reg and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10173.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment (2024)
Working Paper: Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment (2024)
Working Paper: Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: evidence from a field experiment (2022)
Working Paper: Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: evidence from a field experiment (2022)
Working Paper: Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10173

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klaus Wohlrabe ().