The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation

Hunt Allcott and Todd Rogers

American Economic Review, 2014, vol. 104, issue 10, 3003-37

Abstract: We document three remarkable features of the Opower program, in which social comparison-based home energy reports are repeatedly mailed to more than six million households nationwide. First, initial reports cause high-frequency "action and backsliding," but these cycles attenuate over time. Second, if reports are discontinued after two years, effects are relatively persistent, decaying at 10-20 percent per year. Third, consumers are slow to habituate: they continue to respond to repeated treatment even after two years. We show that the previous conservative assumptions about post-intervention persistence had dramatically understated cost effectiveness and illustrate how empirical estimates can optimize program design.

JEL-codes: D12 D83 L94 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.10.3003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (546)

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