 Motivating non-ratepaying households with feedback and social nudges: A cautionary taleChristine L. Crago, John M. Spraggon and Elizabeth Hunter Energy Policy, 2020, vol. 145, issue C Abstract: Behavioral interventions have been shown to be valuable instruments in reducing energy use among ratepaying customers, but their effect on non-ratepayers has received less attention. This study uses a randomized controlled trial research design to examine the effect of feedback and a social nudge in the form of peer comparison on energy consumption of non-ratepaying households. The study setting is a university family housing complex, and findings are based on hourly observations of energy use by 62 households over thirteen weeks. Our results suggest that neither feedback or peer comparison is an effective instrument to reduce energy use of non-ratepaying households, and may even increase energy consumption in some contexts. We find heterogeneous effects among households that are low and high users of energy in the pre-treatment period, with high users increasing energy consumption in response to feedback. Thus, caution is needed in applying behavioral interventions when financial incentives to reinforce intended effects are absent. Keywords: Energy conservation; Feedback; Peer comparison; Social nudges (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:145:y:2020:i:c:s0301421520304857 DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111764 Access Statistics for this article Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.