The DOI matches its Crossref record; 98 of the 104 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Social norms and energy conservation
Abstract
This paper evaluates a series of programs run by a company called OPOWER to send Home Energy Report letters to residential utility customers comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbors. Using data from randomized natural field experiments at 600,000 treatment and control households across the United States, I estimate that the average program reduces energy consumption by 2.0%. The program provides additional evidence that non-price interventions can substantially and cost effectively change consumer behavior: the effect is equivalent to that of a short-run electricity price increase of 11 to 20%, and the cost effectiveness compares favorably to that of traditional energy conservation programs. Perhaps because the treatment included descriptive social norms, effects are heterogeneous: households in the highest decile of pre-treatment consumption decrease usage by 6.3%, while consumption by the lowest decile decreases by only 0.3%. A regression discontinuity design shows that different categories of “injunctive norms” played an insignificant role in encouraging relatively low users not to increase usage.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“A large meta-analysis found that significant residential energy savings can be achieved [215], by targeting the right interventions to the right households [14,16,17].”
From Tackling climate change with machine learning (2023) · cites this paper as [16]
Citations
Cites
Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. D. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7466396 · Cited by 20,065
How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?
Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., & Mullainathan, S. (2004) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355304772839588 · Cited by 10,641
A Theory of the Allocation of Time
Becker, G. S. (1965) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.2307/2228949 · Cited by 10,354
Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies
Rubin, D. B. (1974) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0037350 · Cited by 9,436 · cited 2×
“Nearly all are within the confidence intervals of the small sample pilots by Schultz et al. (2007) and Nolan et al.”
BackgroundA Simple Model of Herd Behavior
Banerjee, A. V. (1992) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.2307/2118364 · Cited by 6,556 · cited 1×
“[15] Banerjee, Abhijit (1992).”
Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.6.1015 · Cited by 5,965 · cited 2×
“[32] Cialdini, Robert, Raymond Reno, and Carl Kallgren (1990).”
BackgroundAkerlof, G., & Kranton, R. (2000) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355300554881 · Cited by 5,824 · cited 1×
“[5] Akerlof, George, and Rachel Kranton (2000).”
Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation
Imbens, G. W., & Wooldridge, J. M. (2009) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.47.1.5 · Cited by 4,926
Regression discontinuity designs in economics
Lee, D. S., & Lemieux, T. (2010) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.48.2.281 · Cited by 4,534
Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice
Imbens, G. W., & Lemieux, T. (2007) · Journal of Econometrics · doi:10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.001 · Cited by 3,701
Flagged first, then by citations
5 of the 104 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Friedrich, 2009, Saving Energy Cost-Effectively: A National Review of the Cost of Energy Saved through Utility-Sector Energy Efficiency Programs
- Lalonde, 1986, Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs, American Economic Review, 76, 604
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–200 of 2,706
Theory and practice of social norms interventions: eight common pitfalls
Cislaghi, B., & Heise, L. (2018) · Globalization and Health · doi:10.1186/s12992-018-0398-x · Cited by 301
“By telling people whether they were doing better or worse at saving energy than their neighbours, the intervention achieved on average a considerable reduction in energy consumption [59, 60].”
BackgroundSaving power to conserve your reputation? The effectiveness of private versus public information
Delmas, M. A., & Lessem, N. (2014) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2013.12.009 · Cited by 234
A meta-analysis of field-experiments using social norms to promote pro-environmental behaviors
Bergquist, M., Nilsson, A., & Schultz, W. P. (2019) · Global Environmental Change · doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101941 · Cited by 240
Field interventions for climate change mitigation behaviors: A second-order meta-analysis
Bergquist, M., Thiel, M., Goldberg, M. H., & van der Linden, S. (2023) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2214851120 · Cited by 245
Factors influencing energy-saving behavior of urban households in Jiangsu Province
Yue, T. R., Long, R., & Chen, H. (2013) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.051 · Cited by 213
“The norm activation model can also significantly stimulate energy savings (Abrahamse and Steg, 2009; Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundFactors affecting low-carbon consumption behavior of urban residents: A comprehensive review
Ding, Z., Jiang, X., Liu, Z., Long, R., Xu, Z., & Cao, Q. (2018) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.01.013 · Cited by 211
Ameli, N., & Brandt, N. (2015) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/4/044015 · Cited by 225
“Recent research shows that informing households about their energy or water consumption compared with that of similar households and providing them with conservation tips can lead to important savings (Allcott 2011, Ferraro and Price 2013).”
BackgroundEmpowering the end-user in smart grids: recommendations for the design of products and services
Geelen, D., Reinders, A., & Keyson, D. (2013) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.107 · Cited by 175
“The potential of knowing the consumption levels of neighbors was highlighted in the feedback program design of OPOWER, which combines comparison between similar households with social-normative messages and energy saving tips in monthly energy bills (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundSchleich, J. E., Gassmann, X., Meißner, T., & Faure, C. (2018) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2018.12.018 · Cited by 211
“In comparison, Allcott and Taubinsky (2015) do not find present bias to be correlated with CFL adoption decisions in their artefactual field experiment in the USA. Similarly, Heutel (2017) finds no relation between present bias and the take-up of energy efficiency measures. Busse et al. (2013), Allcott and Wozny (2014…”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Use of Green Nudges as an Environmental Policy Instrument
Carlsson, F., Gravert, C. A., Johansson‐Stenman, O., & Kurz, V. (2021) · Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · doi:10.1086/715524 · Cited by 201
“The authors argue that in places like Germany, there is simply less room for a reduction because the initial energy use level is already low, which means that additional energy consumption reduction would be very costly.”
BackgroundKurz, V. (2018) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2018.06.005 · Cited by 199
“Examples include the use of social norms to reduce household water and electricity consumption (Allcott, 2011; Ferraro and Price, 2013; Jaime Torres and Carlsson, 2016) and changing the default setting of office printers to duplex to reduce paper consumption (Egebark and Ekström, 2016).”
BackgroundRethinking climate communications and the “psychological climate paradox”
Stoknes, P. E. (2014) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2014.03.007 · Cited by 242
“[81] Allcott H.”
BackgroundNudging: Progress to date and future directions
Beshears, J. L., & Kosowsky, H. (2020) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.09.001 · Cited by 223
“This result has been documented in domains including residential energy conservation (Allcott, 2011), contributions to an online community (Chen, Harper, Konstan, & Li, 2010), towel Beshears and Kosowsky Page 19”
BackgroundInfluentialChanging diets and the transformation of the global food system
Vermeulen, S. J., Park, T., Khoury, C. K., & Béné, C. (2020) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.14446 · Cited by 230
de Groot, J. I. M., Bondy, K., & Schuitema, G. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101688 · Cited by 231
“Studies have found that both injunctive and descriptive social norms are relevant in relation to a variety of pro-environmental intentions and behaviors (e.g., Allcott, 2011; Costa & Kahn, 2013; De Groot, Abra-hamse, & Jones, 2013; De Groot & Schuitema, 2012).”
BackgroundSaving more in groups: Field experimental evidence from Chile
Kast, F., Meier, S., & Pomeranz, D. (2018) · Journal of Development Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.01.006 · Cited by 147
The Persistent Impacts of Norm-Based Messaging and Their Implications for Water Conservation
Bernedo, M., Ferraro, P. J., & Price, M. (2014) · Journal of Consumer Policy · doi:10.1007/s10603-014-9266-0 · Cited by 192
“…psychology and economics provide empirical evidence that interventions based on this theory provide an effective means to promote environmental conservation (see, e.g., Kurz et al., 2005; Schultz et al., 2007; Goldstein et al., 2008; Nolan et al., 2008; Allcott, 2011; Ferraro and Price, 2013).”
BackgroundInfluentialGraves, L., Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2016) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/jcom.12198 · Cited by 191
“…consists of 1689 reporters at 6However, it is important to note that peer comparisons are not always effective and can backfire (Werch et al. 2000; Wechsler et al. 2003; Schultz et al. 2007; Allcott 2011; Beshears et al. 2011; Livingstone et al. 2011; Costa and Kahn 2013; Bolsen et al. 2014).”
BackgroundReducing student absences at scale by targeting parents’ misbeliefs
Rogers, T., & Feller, A. (2018) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0328-1 · Cited by 210
Social Identity and Economic Policy
Shayo, M. (2020) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-082019-110313 · Cited by 180
Khanna, T. M., Baiocchi, G., Callaghan, M., Creutzig, F., Guias, H., Haddaway, N., Hirth, L., Javaid, A., Koch, N., Laukemper, S., et al. (2021) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/s41560-021-00866-x · Cited by 203
Tackling climate change with machine learning
Rolnick, D., Donti, P. L., Kaack, L. H., Kochanski, K., Lacoste, A., Sankaran, K., Ross, A. S., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Jaques, N., Waldman-Brown, A., et al. (2023) · ACM Computing Surveys · doi:10.1145/3485128 · Cited by 336
“A large meta-analysis found that significant residential energy savings can be achieved [677], by targeting the right interventions to the right households [678–680].”
BackgroundBehavioral Economics and Public Policy 102: Beyond Nudging
Bhargava, S., & Loewenstein, G. F. (2015) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.p20151049 · Cited by 191
A Reduced-Form Approach to Behavioral Public Finance
Mullainathan, S., Schwartzstein, J., & Congdon, W. J. (2012) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-111809-125033 · Cited by 176
“For example, giving people information on how their residential energy consumption compares with that of their neighbors has been shown to have significant effects on usage (Schultz et al. 2007, Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundPromoting cooperation in the field
Kraft-Todd, G., Yoeli, E., Bhanot, S., & Rand, D. (2015) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.02.006 · Cited by 178
“People are more likely to cooperate when they are told that others have cooperated, implying that cooperation is the social norm [10, 20, 23, 24, 35, 39, 41-58].”
BackgroundBurtch, G., Ghose, A., & Wattal, S. (2016) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.2016.0642 · Cited by 181
“The literature on descriptive social norms is similarly replete with examples of individuals adhering to norms established by complete strangers, and in the absence of any social interaction (e.g., Allcott 2011, Gerber and Rogers 2009, Ferraro and Price 2013).”
Hynes, N., & Wilson, J. (2016) · Technological Forecasting and Social Change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.034 · Cited by 196
“This form of comparison has been shown to be particularly effective at influencing behaviour change, particularly when the behaviour is contextualised (Allcott, 2011; Goldstein et al., 2008; Jensen, 1986; Mankoff et al., 2010; Grevet & Mankoff, 2009).”
BackgroundNiamir, L., Ivanova, O., Filatova, T., Voinov, A. A., & Bressers, H. T. A. (2019) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2019.101356 · Cited by 193
“Personal norms are attached to the self-concept and experienced as feelings of a moral obligation to perform a certain behavior [24,41,43, 73, 103]; while Social norms are determined by the perceived social pressure from others for an individual to behave in a certain manner and their motivation to comply with those p…”
BackgroundNorms: An Integrated Framework
Horne, C., & Mollborn, S. (2020) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054658 · Cited by 184
Direct and mediated impacts of social norms on pro-environmental behavior
Helferich, M., Thøgersen, J., & Bergquist, M. (2023) · Global Environmental Change · doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102680 · Cited by 191
Behavioral Environmental Economics: Promises and Challenges
Croson, R. T. A., & Treich, N. (2014) · Environmental and Resource Economics · doi:10.1007/s10640-014-9783-y · Cited by 197
“Allcott (2011) examines a conservation program, run by a company called OPOWER.”
BackgroundInfluentialRisk Perception and Protective Behaviors During the Rise of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy
Savadori, L., & Lauriola, M. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577331 · Cited by 185
“Social norms are a fundamental construct in behavior change (Cialdini et al., 1990, 1991; Ostrom, 2000; Schultz et al., 2007; Goldstein et al., 2008; Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundFrom intention to action: Can nudges help consumers to choose renewable energy?
Momsen, K., & Stoerk, T. (2014) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2014.07.008 · Cited by 197
“Secondly, research on the effectiveness of nudges in energy consumption (Allcott, 2011; Allcott and Mullainathan, 2010; Allcott and Rogers, 2012; Costa and Kahn, 2013) has shown the great effectiveness of using nudges as energy policy instruments.”
BackgroundGrading buildings on energy performance using city benchmarking data
Papadopoulos, S., & Kontokosta, C. E. (2019) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.10.053 · Cited by 177
The use of field experiments to increase tax compliance
Hallsworth, M. (2014) · Oxford Review of Economic Policy · doi:10.1093/oxrep/gru034 · Cited by 171
The effects of framing on environmental decisions: A systematic literature review
Ropret Homar, A., & Knežević Cvelbar, L. (2021) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106950 · Cited by 190
Using nudges to reduce waste? The case of Toronto's plastic bag levy
Rivers, N. J., Shenstone-Harris, S., & Young, N. (2016) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.12.009 · Cited by 175
“In this case at least, the nudging policy appears to have had a much greater effect onwealthier households, revealing an important potential limitation to this policy approach (see also Allcott, 2011).”
Ferraro, P. J., & Miranda, J. J. (2013) · Resource and Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.04.001 · Cited by 171
“(2007), Ayres et al. (2009), Allcott (2012), Costa and Kahn (2013) and Yoeli (2009) focus on energy consumption, while Ferraro and Price (2013) and Ferraro et al.”
BackgroundInfluentialEco-Premium or Eco-Penalty? Eco-Labels and Quality in the Organic Wine Market
Delmas, M. A., & Lessem, N. (2015) · Business & Society · doi:10.1177/0007650315576119 · Cited by 172
“…(Schultz, 1999), towel reuse (Goldstein, Cialdini, & Griskevicius, 2008), litter reduction (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990), water conservation (Ferraro & Price, 2013), and energy conservation (Allcott, 2011; Costa & Kahn, 2013; Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2007).”
The critical role of second-order normative beliefs in predicting energy conservation
Jachimowicz, J., Hauser, O., O’Brien, J. D., Sherman, E., & Galinsky, A. D. (2018) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0434-0 · Cited by 169
The Hawthorne effect and energy awareness
Schwartz, D., Fischhoff, B., Krishnamurti, T., & Sowell, F. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1301687110 · Cited by 163
“That interpretation is consistent with the observation that the effects of sustained energy conservation programs seem to decay between quarterly use reports (29).”
ResultThe Effectiveness of Energy Feedback for Conservation and Peak Demand: A Literature Review
Vine, D., Buys, L. R., & Morris, P. (2013) · Open Journal of Energy Efficiency · doi:10.4236/ojee.2013.21002 · Cited by 168
“Allcott [52] found that the effect of the intervenetion was equivalent to that of a short-run electricity price”
BackgroundHoude, S., Todd, A., Sudarshan, A., et al. (2013) · The Energy Journal · doi:10.5547/01956574.34.1.4 · Cited by 167
Goal setting and energy conservation
Harding, M., & Hsiaw, A. (2014) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2014.04.012 · Cited by 172
“…consumers’ behav- 1One of the largest companies, OPower, works with over 80 utilities nationwide and claims over 2 Terawatt hours of electricity saved as a result of its behavioral programs. ior (Allcott, 2011; Ferraro and Price, 2013; Costa and Kahn, 2010; Nolan et al., 2008; Bolsen et al., 2013).”
BackgroundSoll, J. B., Milkman, K. L., & Payne, J. W. (2015) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118468333.ch33 · Cited by 209
“This tendency can be used strategically: providing information about the energy usage of a consumer’s neighbors on an electricity bill (rather than only conveying information about the consumer’s own usage) can reduce energy consumption by 2% (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundBrent, D. A., Cook, J., & Olsen, S. (2015) · Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · doi:10.1086/683427 · Cited by 162
Legitimacy Revisited: Disentangling Propriety, Validity, and Consensus
Haack, P., Schilke, O. S., & Zucker, L. G. (2020) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/joms.12615 · Cited by 184
“…and isolating factors of theoretical interest, as demonstrated by experimental research in sociology (e.g., Correll et al., 2017; Schilke and Rossman, 2018), psychology (e.g., Paluck and Shepherd, 2012; Zou et al., 2009), and behavioural economics (e.g., Allcott, 2011; Hallsworth et al., 2017).”
BackgroundVona, F. (2018) · Climate Policy · doi:10.1080/14693062.2018.1532871 · Cited by 162
“social comparisons are found to affect the adoption of energy-efficient behaviours or mitigation practices (Allcott, 2011; Biel & Thøgersen, 2007).”
BackgroundHow social norms are often a barrier to addressing climate change but can be part of the solution
Sparkman, G., Howe, L. C., & Walton, G. (2020) · Behavioural Public Policy · doi:10.1017/bpp.2020.42 · Cited by 169
“These include conservation behaviors such as saving residential water and energy (Schultz et al., 2007; Allcott, 2011; Brent et al., 2015; for a review, see Abrahamse & Steg, 2013), adopting sustainable technologies such as solar panels (Bollinger & Gillingham, 2012) and electric vehicles (Barth et…”
BackgroundWillingness to participate in direct load control: The role of consumer distrust
Stenner, K., Frederiks, E. R., Hobman, E. V., & Cook, S. (2016) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.10.099 · Cited by 174
On the misplaced politics of behavioural policy interventions
Tannenbaum, D., Fox, C. R., & Rogers, T. (2017) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0130 · Cited by 157
Yamin, P., Fei, M., Lahlou, S., & Levy, S. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11205847 · Cited by 172
A review of nudges: Definitions, justifications, effectiveness
Congiu, L., & Moscati, I. (2021) · Journal of Economic Surveys · doi:10.1111/joes.12453 · Cited by 199
Getting Green with Solar Subsidies: Evidence from the California Solar Initiative
Hughes, J. E., & Podolefsky, M. C. (2015) · Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · doi:10.1086/681131 · Cited by 155
Conditional Cooperation and Climate Change
Tingley, D. H., & Tomz, M. R. (2013) · Comparative Political Studies · doi:10.1177/0010414013509571 · Cited by 159
“Researchers have also studied ways to counteract the boomerang effect, for example, by suggesting that low consumption is morally desirable, or by providing all households with energy conservation tips; see Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, and Griskevicius (2007) and Alcott (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundKowalska-Pyzalska, A. (2017) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.103 · Cited by 158
“The impact of the neighbors behavior has been also revealed in the studies of [39,40].”
BackgroundResultInfluentialPro-environmental habits: An underexplored research agenda in sustainability science
Linder, N., Giusti, M., Samuelsson, K., & Barthel, S. (2021) · AMBIO · doi:10.1007/s13280-021-01619-6 · Cited by 210
“…for example, reducing water and paper consumption (Egebark and Ekström 2016), increasing food waste recycling (Linder et al. 2018), lowering energy use (Allcott and Mullainathan 2010; Allcott 2011; Costa and Kahn 2013; Allcott and Rogers 2014), and limiting food waste (Kallbekken and Sælen 2013).”
BackgroundDrivers, Trends and Mitigation
Blanco, G., Reyer Gerlagh, A., Suh, S., Ahenkorah, A. K. O., Barrett, J., de Coninck, H., Diaz Morejon, C. F., Mathur, R., Nakićenović, N., Pan, J., et al. (2015) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781107415416.011 · Cited by 214
Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks
Lee, E., Karimi, F., Wagner, C., Jo, H.-H., Strohmaier, M., & Galešić, M. (2019) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0677-4 · Cited by 153
Nudging with Care: The Risks and Benefits of Social InformationPreprint
Bicchieri, C., & Dimant, E. (2019) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3319088 · Cited by 152
Promoting Pro-Environmental Behavior
Schultz, P. W., & Kaiser, F. G. (2012) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733026.013.0029 · Cited by 182
Alpízar, F., Carlsson, F., Lanza, G., Almroth, B. C., Daniels, R. C., Jaime, M., Ho, T. Q., Nie, Z., Salazar, C., Tibesigwa, B., et al. (2020) · Environmental Science & Policy · doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2020.04.007 · Cited by 166
“, 2016) and norms in relation to resource use (Allcott, 2011; Ferraro et al., 2011), littering (Cialdini et al.”
BackgroundThe Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms: Reprise
Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2018) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691617693325 · Cited by 153
“Across their 100+ deployments, the average energy savings ranged from 2% to 5% (Allcott, 2011; Laskey, 2013).”
BackgroundTen questions concerning integrating smart buildings into the smart grid
Lawrence, T. M., Boudreau, M., Helsen, L., Henze, G. P., Mohammadpour, J., Noonan, D. S., Patteeuw, D., Pless, S., & Watson, R. T. (2016) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.08.022 · Cited by 156
“Field experiments to understand the impact of HER have corroborated the savings potential [63,64], and both studies confirm a 1.”
ResultLv, Y., Chen, W., & Cheng, J. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111858 · Cited by 154
The role of information for energy efficiency in the residential sector
Ramos, A., Rodríguez, A. G., Labandeira, X., & Linares, P. (2015) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2015.08.022 · Cited by 163
Hartman, E., Grieve, R., Ramsahai, R. R., & Sekhon, J. S. (2015) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society) · doi:10.1111/rssa.12094 · Cited by 145
“Allcott (2011) showed that in their setting non-experimental estimates have poor external validity, and that is worse than when nonexperimental effects are predicted by using experimental results from another location.”
BackgroundCarroll, J., Lyons, S., & Denny, E. (2014) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2014.07.007 · Cited by 151
The Dynamics of Behavior Change: Evidence from Energy Conservation
Asensio, O. I., & Delmas, M. A. (2015) · Academy of Management Proceedings · doi:10.5465/ambpp.2015.17915abstract · Cited by 170
Partisan Interactions: Evidence from a Field Experiment in the United States
Perez-Truglia, R., & Cruces, G. (2017) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/692711 · Cited by 146
“There is also evidence that households’ energy consumption changes when they are provided with information about the consumption of neighbors (Allcott 2011).”
Behavior Change Interventions to Reduce Illegal Fishing
Battista, W., Romero‐Canyas, R., Smith, S. L., Fraire-Cervantes, J. A., Effron, M., Larson-Konar, D. M., & Fujita, R. M. (2018) · Frontiers in Marine Science · doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00403 · Cited by 160
“…1993; Cialdini and Trost, 1998; Sober and Wilson, 1998; Kallgren et al., 2000; Boyd and Richerson, 2006; Schultz et al., 2007; Goldstein et al., 2008; Allcott, 2011; Gneezy et al., 2016) and have been identified as important drivers of legal and illegal fishing behavior (van Sittert, 1993;…”
BackgroundInternal and External Barriers to Energy Efficiency: Made-to-Measure Policy Interventions
Cattaneo, C. (2018) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-019-09775-1 · Cited by 166
“Allcott (2011b) as well confirms that consumers react to the report not because their knowledge increases, but because the report increases the moral cost of energy use.”
BackgroundSocial Norms and Energy Conservation Beyond the US
Andor, M., Gerster, A., Peters, J., & Schmidt, C. Μ. (2018) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102351 · Cited by 157
“…and Christoph M. Schmidt1 Social Norms and Energy Conservation Beyond the US Abstract The seminal studies by Allcott and Mullainathan (2010), Allcott (2011), and Allcott and Rogers (2014) suggest that social comparison-based home energy reports (HER) are a cost-effective non-price…”
InfluentialTruglia, R. N. P., & Troiano, U. A. (2018) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.09.008 · Cited by 158
Steinhorst, J., & Klöckner, C. A. (2017) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916517725371 · Cited by 156
“Self-toother comparisons (social norms) have been shown to be an effective strategy for reducing energy consumption in some previous studies (Allcott, 2011; Nolan et al., 2008; Schultz et al., 2015), also in comparison with monetary feedback (Schultz et al., 2015) and environmental or monetary…”
Han, N. R., Baek, T. H., Yoon, S., & Kim, Y. (2019) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.06.020 · Cited by 145
Mohseni, S., Brent, A. C., Kelly, S., & Browne, W. N. (2022) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2022.112095 · Cited by 159
Green energy adoption and its determinants: A bibliometric analysis
Qin, Y., Xu, Z., Wang, X., & Škare, M. (2021) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.111780 · Cited by 160
Miller, G., & Mobarak, A. M. (2014) · Marketing Science · doi:10.1287/mksc.2014.0845 · Cited by 139
“2013), job information (Magruder 2010, Beaman 2012), health inputs (Kremer and Miguel 2007, Oster and Thornton 2011, Godlonton and Thornton 2012), agricultural technologies (Foster and Rosenzweig 1995, Conley and Udry 2010), and energy choices (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundThe interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation
Bonan, J., Cattaneo, C., D’Adda, G., & Tavoni, M. (2020) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/s41560-020-00719-z · Cited by 142
Do The Effects of Nudges Persist? Theory and Evidence from 38 Natural Field Experiments
Brandon, A., Ferraro, P. J., List, J. A., Metcalfe, R., Price, M., & Rundhammer, F. (2017) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w23277 · Cited by 143
From “if only” to “social potential” in schemes to reduce building energy use
Moezzi, M. M., & Janda, K. B. (2014) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2014.03.014 · Cited by 137
Knowledge is (Less) Power: Experimental Evidence from Residential Energy Use
Jessoe, K., & Rapson, D. S. (2012) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w18344 · Cited by 135
Dynamic salience with intermittent billing: Evidence from smart electricity meters
Gilbert, B., & Zivin, J. G. (2014) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2014.03.011 · Cited by 132
Perceived Social Consensus Can Reduce Ideological Biases on Climate Change
Goldberg, M. H., van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., & Maibach, E. W. (2019) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916519853302 · Cited by 148
Babutsidze, Z., & Chai, A. (2017) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.10.017 · Cited by 148
Demand, Services and Social Aspects of Mitigation
(IPCC), I. P. O. C. C. (2023) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009157926.007 · Cited by 244
Energy saving behaviours: Development of a practice-based model
Sweeney, J., Kresling, J., Webb, D. A., Soutar, G. N., & Mazzarol, T. W. (2013) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.121 · Cited by 131
Hobman, E. V., Frederiks, E. R., Stenner, K., & Meikle, S. (2016) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.144 · Cited by 136
What we can learn from five naturalistic field experiments that failed to shift commuter behaviour
Kristal, A. S., & Whillans, A. V. (2019) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0795-z · Cited by 129
Prices, information and nudges for residential electricity conservation: A meta-analysis
Buckley, P. (2020) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106635 · Cited by 124
Automatic Bill Payment and Salience Effects: Evidence from Electricity Consumption
Sexton, S. (2014) · The Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/rest_a_00465 · Cited by 124
“The reports are estimated to reduce electricity consumption by 2% (Allcott, 2011), though the impact is heterogeneous.”
BackgroundCan indifference make the world greener?
Egebark, J. H., & Ekström, M. (2015) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2015.11.004 · Cited by 126
Bélaïd, F., & García, T. (2016) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2016.05.006 · Cited by 126
Energy and behaviour at home: A review of intervention methods and practices
Iweka, O., Liu, S., Shukla, A., & Yan, D. (2019) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2019.101238 · Cited by 121
Does Better Information Lead to Better Choices? Evidence from Energy-Efficiency Labels
Davis, L. W., & Metcalf, G. E. (2016) · Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · doi:10.1086/686252 · Cited by 131
“Studies by Allcott (2011a, 2013) examine “MPG Illusion,” the idea that consumers may not understand the nonlinear relationship between miles per gallon and motor vehicle fuel consumption.”
BackgroundGeneralizing Evidence from Randomized Trials Using Inverse Probability of Sampling Weights
Buchanan, A. L., Hudgens, M. G., Cole, S. R., Mollan, K. R., Sax, P. E., Daar, E. S., Adimora, A. A., Eron, J. J., & Mugavero, M. J. (2018) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society) · doi:10.1111/rssa.12357 · Cited by 126
Measuring pro-environmental behavior using the carbon emission task
Berger, S., & Wyss, A. M. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101613 · Cited by 142
Edenhofer, O., Pichs-Madruga, R., & Sokona, Y. (2014) · Cited by 126
Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era
Ying, S., Leng, K., & Xiong, H. (2022) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103118 · Cited by 138
Metadata
- Authors
- Allcott, H.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Allcott, Hunt
- Venue
- Journal of Public Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-10
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 9-10
- Pages
- 1082-1095
- ISSN
- 0047-2727 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2139035425
- Cited by
- 2,802
- References
- 104
- Citations by year
- 2026: 225 · 2025: 209 · 2024: 194 · 2023: 208 · 2022: 226 · 2021: 257 · 2020: 225 · 2019: 240 · 2018: 199 · 2017: 171 · 2016: 165 · 2015: 161 · 2014: 147 · 2013: 94 · 2012: 55
- FWCI
- 263.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Public Economics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Pro-Environmental Behavior and Attitudes
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- social norms, energy conservation, social comparison, residential electricity consumption, cost-effectiveness, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, treatment effect heterogeneity
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
