Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Consumers often struggle to grasp complicated pricing plans, including increasing block rate (IBR) schemes, which have been used for decades by utilities in many parts of the world. The assumption that they encourage conservation has, however, recently been challenged (Ito, 2014). We take advantage of the unique IBR tariffs for electricity in the Republic of Georgia—where “overage” is penalized more heavily than in conventional IBRs—to ask whether consumers respond to price, and to which price specifically.