Nudging energy efficiency audits: Evidence from a field experiment

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Year: 2018
Volume: 90
Issue: C
Pages: 303-316

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper uses a randomized field experiment to test how information provision leveraging social norms, salience, and a personal touch can serve as a nudge to influence the uptake of residential energy audits. Our results show that a low-cost carefully-crafted notecard can increase the probability of a household to follow through with an already scheduled audit by 1.1 percentage points on a given day. The effect is very similar across individuals with different political views, but households in rural areas display a substantially greater effect than those in urban areas. Our findings have important managerial and policy implications, as they suggest a cost-effective nudge for increasing energy audit uptake and voluntary energy efficiency adoption.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeeman:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:303-316
Journal Field
Environment
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25