Pro-environmental incentives and loss aversion: A field experiment on electricity saving behavior

Claus Ghesla, Manuel Grieder, Jan Schmitz and Marcel Stadelmann

Energy Policy, 2020, vol. 137, issue C

Abstract: This paper reports evidence from a field experiment investigating households’ electricity saving behavior. We motivated households’ efforts to save electricity via pro-environmental incentives that did not affect people’s monetary utility but targeted their environmental preferences. The results show that such pro-environmental incentives can be effective, especially when framed as potential losses to the environment. Our loss-framed pro-environmental incentive led households to save 5% on their monthly electricity consumption compared to a control group.

Keywords: Pro-environmental behavior; Ecological incentives; Loss aversion; Loss framing; Randomized field experiments; Energy conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D91 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:137:y:2020:i:c:s0301421519307177

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111131

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