Paternalism and Energy Efficiency: An Overview

Hunt Allcott ()
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Hunt Allcott: Department of Economics, New York University, New York, NY 10012

Annual Review of Economics, 2016, vol. 8, issue 1, 145-176

Abstract: This article provides an overview of the application of behavioral public economics to energy efficiency. I document policy makers' arguments for “paternalistic” energy efficiency policies, formalize with a simple model of misoptimizing consumers, review and critique empirical evidence, and suggest future research directions. Although empirical results suggest that policies to address imperfect information and internalities may increase welfare in some cases, some existing policies may be mistargeted or miscalibrated.

Keywords: behavioral public economics; energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D12 D83 H21 L51 L94 Q41 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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