Non-price energy conservation information and household energy consumption in a developing country: Evidence from an RCT

Ahsanuzzaman,, Shaikh Eskander, Asad Islam and Liang Wang

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024, vol. 127, issue C

Abstract: We use a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh to test three types of non-price energy conservation strategies that influence electricity consumption of households: (i) advice on electricity conservation methods (knowledge treatment); (ii) (median) electricity consumption of others in the suburb (suburb comparison); and (iii) (median) electricity consumption of neighbors (neighbor comparison). We find that providing advice on saving energy could reduce households' electricity consumption and bills significantly. The effects are stronger for advice on electricity conservation methods than neighbor and suburb comparisons. The effects of providing information about own electricity consumption relative to neighbors’ electricity consumption is similar to the effects of giving information about own electricity consumption relative to electricity consumption of households in the same suburb. The effects among households who were inefficient users in neighbor and suburb comparison groups are almost as strong as those in the knowledge treatment group. The effects across all treatment groups become stronger over time as they receive repeated information.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; Electricity consumption; Field experiment; Non-price information; Social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D83 D91 Q40 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Working Paper: Non-price energy conservation information and household energy consumption in a developing country: evidence from an RCT (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:127:y:2024:i:c:s0095069624000962

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103022

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