Social Norms and Information Diffusion in Water-saving Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Colombia

Mónica Marcela Jaime Torres () and Fredrik Carlsson
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Mónica Marcela Jaime Torres: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden, http://www.economics.gu.se

No 652, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates direct and spillover effects of a social information campaign aimed at encouraging residential water savings in Colombia. The campaign was organized as a randomized field experiment, consisting of monthly delivery of consumption reports, including normative messages, for one year. Results indicate that social information and appeals to normbased behavior reduce water use by up to 6.8% in households directly targeted by the campaign. In addition, we find evidence of spillover effects: households that were not targeted by the campaign reduced water use by 5.8% in the first six months following the intervention. Nevertheless, neither direct nor spillover effects can be attributed to social networks for any of our chosen proxies of social and geographic proximity.

Keywords: Peer effects; social norms; randomized evaluation; water utilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 L95 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-dev, nep-exp, nep-lam, nep-res and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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