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

Hunt Allcott and Todd Rogers

No 18492, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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: D03 D11 L97 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-reg
Note: EEE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Published as Allcott, Hunt, and Todd Rogers. 2014. "The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation." American Economic Review, 104(10): 3003-37. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.10.3003

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18492.pdf (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:nbr:nberwo:18492

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18492

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().