Application of the economic theory of self-control to model energy conservation behavioral change in households

Berndt Lundgren () and Mårten Schultzberg ()
Additional contact information
Berndt Lundgren: Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10B, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Mårten Schultzberg: Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Department of Statistics, Uppsala University, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, 751 20 Uppsala, , 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

No 19/1, Working Paper Series from Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance

Abstract: Smart meters and in-house displays hold a promise of energy conservation for those who invest in such technology. Research has shown that households only have a limited interest in such technology and information is thus often neglected, with rather limited energy savings. Surprisingly few empirical investigations have a theoretical foundation that may explain what is going on from a behavioral perspective. In this study the economic theory of self-control is used to model energy-efficient behavior in middle-income households in Sweden. Our results show that different levels of energy-efficient behavior do not really have any impact on the actual consumption levels of electricity. Instead, different beliefs exist of being energy-efficient, but the households do not act accordingly. Our results suggest that the payment time period should be changed to stimulate the monitoring of bills and to introduce a gaming strategy to change incentives for energy conservation.

Keywords: Energy use; Energy efficient; In-house displays; mediation model; smart meters; two-level time series (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C81 D12 R22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2019-03-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://kth.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1300124 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:hhs:kthrec:2019_001

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10B, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Cecilia Hermansson ().