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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.
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“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]
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“Geographic networks have been shown to matter in such diverse domains as households’ energy consumption (Allcott, 2011), blood donations (Bruhin et al.”
BackgroundA Behavioral Approach to Water Conservation: Evidence from Costa Rica
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“These findings led us to hypothesize that an intervention that allowed consumers to benchmark their consumption against their peers (i.e. a “descriptive norm” intervention; Allcott 2011, Ferraro and Price 2013), would be useful.”
BackgroundMisperceived Social Norms and Willingness to Act Against Climate Change
Andre, P., Boneva, T., Chopra, F., & Falk, A. (2024) · The Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/rest_a_01468 · Cited by 97
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In search of behavioural and social levers for effective social housing retrofit programs
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On the Use of Nudges to Affect Spillovers in Environmental Behaviors
Fanghella, V., D’Adda, G., & Tavoni, M. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00061 · Cited by 68
“Social information, it is argued, influences behaviors toward the desired social outcome thanks to the underlying positive correlation between one’s and others’ moral behavior (Schultz, 1999; Schultz et al., 2007; Goldstein et al., 2008; Nolan et al., 2008; Allcott, 2011; Ferraro et al., 2011; Nomura et al., 2011; Toe…”
BackgroundNudges that hurt those already hurting – distributional and unintended effects of salience nudges*
Thunström, L., Gilbert, B., & Ritten, C. J. (2018) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2018.07.005 · Cited by 61
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Leviston, Z., & Uren, H. V. (2019) · Journal of Social Issues · doi:10.1111/josi.12365 · Cited by 58
“…shown that providing accurate descriptive norms to good performers should be done with caution, as it can result in rebound effects as people revise their behavior to more closely align to the newly learned descriptive norm (Allcott, 2011; Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2007).”
BackgroundBalaji, B., Teraoka, H., Gupta, R. K., & Agarwal, Y. (2013) · ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation (BuildSys) · doi:10.1145/2528282.2528304 · Cited by 61
“However, the energy feedback has been limited to electricity consumption [22]and has been designed for residential buildings [4, 8].”
BackgroundEnergy demand science for a decarbonized society in the context of the residential sector
Shimoda, Y., Yamaguchi, Y., Iwafune, Y., Hidaka, K., Meier, A., Yagita, Y., Kawamoto, H., & Nishikiori, S. (2020) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2020.110051 · Cited by 59
“Research by Allcott [26], for example, demonstrated the extent to which norms also affect occupants’ behavior.”
BackgroundVu, H. T., Tran, D., Goto, D., & Kawata, K. (2020) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105062 · Cited by 61
Heterogeneous preferences and investments in energy saving measures
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Efficiently exploring the causal role of contextual moderators in behavioral science
Hecht, C. A., Dweck, C. S., Murphy, M. C., Kroeper, K. M., & Yeager, D. S. (2022) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2216315120 · Cited by 73
“For example, the popular Opower descriptive norms intervention, which informed people when they used more energy than similar neighbors, showed the strongest effects in communities that favored proenvironmental issues (8, 9).”
BackgroundHarding, M., & Lamarche, C. (2016) · Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · doi:10.1002/pam.21928 · Cited by 60
Enzler, H. B. (2017) · Journal of Transport Geography · doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.03.014 · Cited by 60
Rank and response: A field experiment on peer information and water use behavior
Bhanot, S. P. (2017) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2017.06.011 · Cited by 60
The behavioral effect of Pigovian regulation: Evidence from a field experiment
Lanz, B., Wurlod, J.-D., Panzone, L., & Swanson, T. M. (2017) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2017.06.005 · Cited by 58
“…the growing use of market-based instruments for environmental policy, the inexpensive nature of non-price interventions (Bertrand et al., 2010; Allcott, 2011), as well as the emerging literature on behavioral public finance (e.g. Chetty et al., 2009; Mullainathan et al., 2012), quantifying…”
BackgroundInfluentialZiegler, A. R. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102516 · Cited by 59
“…relevant behavior is affected by a broad range of factors such as socio-demographics (e.g. Lange and Ziegler, 2017), but also social norms (e.g. Allcott, 2011, Videras et al., 2012) or attitudinal factors like warm glow (e.g. Schwirplies and Ziegler, 2016) or individual values (e.g. Kahn,…”
BackgroundDynamic tariffs, demand response, and regulation in retail electricity markets
Guo, B., & Weeks, M. (2022) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105774 · Cited by 59
“Allcott (2011), Gans et al. (2013) each found that demand-side management ( dsm ) stimuli are associated with declines in electricity consumption.”
Does One Good Turn Deserve Another? Evidence of Domain-Specific Licensing in Energy Behavior
Noblet, C. L., & McCoy, S. K. (2017) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916517718022 · Cited by 58
“Examples of externally activating sustainability social norms range from conservation behaviors in hotels (Goldstein, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008; Reese, Loew, & Steffgen, 2014) to energy consumption reductions (Allcott, 2011; Schultz, Nolan, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2007).”
BackgroundInformation strategies for energy conservation: A field experiment in India
Chen, V. L., Delmas, M. A., Locke, S. L., & Singh, A. (2017) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2017.09.004 · Cited by 58
Nudging Energy Efficiency Audits: Evidence from A Field Experiment
Gillingham, K. T., & TSVETANOV, T. G. (2017) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2018.06.009 · Cited by 59
“…referred to as “nudges” (Thaler and Sunstein 2008)–can reduce household consumption of electricity (Schultz et al. 2007; Nolan et al. 2008; Allcott 2011; Allcott and Rogers 2014) and water (Ferraro, Miranda, and Price 2011; Ferraro and Miranda 2013; Ferraro and Price 2013; Brent,…”
BackgroundBilancini, E., Boncinelli, L., Capraro, V., Celadin, T., & Paolo, R. D. (2020) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/7863g · Cited by 58
“, 2017; Krupka & Weber, 2009; Krupka & Weber, 2013; Kimbrough & Vostroknutov, 2016) as well as in the field (Agerström et al., 2016; Croson et al., 2010; Ferraro & Price, 2013; Frey & Meier, 2004; Goldstein et al., 2008; Allcott, 2011; Hallsworth et al., 2017; Allcott & Kessler, 2019).”
The neuroscience of social conformity: implications for fundamental and applied research
Stallen, M., & Sanfey, A. G. (2015) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2015.00337 · Cited by 61
“…Insights Team, 2012), householders decrease their energy use when informed that they use more power than their neighbors (Schultz et al., 2007; Slemrod and Allcott, 2011), and people are more likely to give to a charity if it is viewed as the social norm (Alpizar et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2015).”
BackgroundHeinz, N., & Koessler, A. (2020) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106987 · Cited by 63
“Descriptive social norms provide information on what other people of an associated group do, thereby exerting an influence on individual decisions (Cialdini et al., 1990, a well-known example is the OPOWER study by Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundWould an Energy Conservation Nudge in Hotels Encourage Hotel Guests to Conserve?
Chang, H. “., Huh, C., & Lee, M. J. (2015) · Cornell Hospitality Quarterly · doi:10.1177/1938965515588132 · Cited by 58
2. Using Experimental Methods to Understand Why and How We Give to Charity
Lise Vesterlund, C. (2016) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9781400883172-003 · Cited by 63
Impact of information feedback on residential electricity demand in China
Du, L., Guo, J., & Chu, W. (2017) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.07.004 · Cited by 57
Zhang, Y., Bai, X., Mills, F. P., & Pezzey, J. C. V. (2021) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126510 · Cited by 59
Understanding Peer Effects in Financial Decisions: Evidence from a Field ExperimentPreprint
Bursztyn, L., Ederer, F. P., Ferman, B., & Yuchtman, N. (2012) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2101391 · Cited by 58
Consumer Behaviour with Environmental and Social Externalities: Implications for Analysis and Policy
Dasgupta, P. S., Southerton, D., Ulph, A., & Ulph, D. (2015) · Environmental and Resource Economics · doi:10.1007/s10640-015-9911-3 · Cited by 60
“22 saving energy, or retirement savings can significantly increase levels of savings (Allcott (2011))(29); (c) by developing trust between members of a norm group it can reduce transactions costs(30); (d) for a number of consumption activities, such as reading a book or attending a concert, the benefits are not just t…”
BackgroundGulbinas, R., Jain, R. K., & Taylor, J. E. (2014) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.07.034 · Cited by 56
Can Social Information Affect What Job You Choose and Keep?
Coffman, L. C., Featherstone, C. R., & Kessler, J. B. (2016) · American Economic Journal Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20140468 · Cited by 55
Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change
Wolske, K. S., & Stern, P. C. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813130-5.00007-2 · Cited by 62
Motivating household water conservation: A field experiment in Singapore
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Charging Ahead: Prepaid Metering, Electricity Use, and Utility Revenue
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Tuomela, S., Tomé, M. D. C., Iivari, N., et al. (2021) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117310 · Cited by 57
“For example, [71] found that as long as their two-years nudging experiment continued, which included the delivery of regular information letters, the savings continued to exist.”
BackgroundHow Do We Choose Our Identity? A Revealed Preference Approach Using Food Consumption
Atkin, D., Colson-Sihra, E., & Shayo, M. (2019) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w25693 · Cited by 55
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“Allcott (2011a) analyzed data from a framed field experiment on real-time pricing conducted by ComEd in Chicago in which about 700 households opted in to the study.”
BackgroundTwenty Key Challenges in Environmental and Resource Economics
Bretschger, L., & Pittel, K. (2020) · Environmental and Resource Economics · doi:10.1007/s10640-020-00516-y · Cited by 59
“In environmental economics, experimental and quasi-experimental approaches have been applied mainly for capturing individuals’ or firms’ decisions on the use of land, water, resources, and energy (e.g. Allcott 2011; Duflo et al.”
BackgroundSocial comparison nudges—Guessing the norm increases charitable giving
Bartke, S., Friedl, A., Gelhaar, F., & Reh, L. (2016) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2016.12.023 · Cited by 54
The role of context in residential energy interventions: A meta review
Šćepanović, S., Warnier, M., & Nurminen, J. K. (2017) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.044 · Cited by 56
Bergquist, M. (2019) · Basic and Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/01973533.2019.1689364 · Cited by 71
“Yet, from a practical perspective, even a small effect size can have an important impact on climate change mitigation when applied on a large scale (e.g., Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundThe social multiplier of environmental policy: Application to carbon taxation
Konc, T., Savin, I. V., & van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102396 · Cited by 60
“…choices cannot be fully explained by stable preferences and behavioral biases but that the social environment a(cid:27)ects agents’ decisions (Bowles, 1998; Postlewaite, 1998; Mailath and Postlewaite, 2010; Fehr and Ho(cid:27), 2011; Ho(cid:27) and Stiglitz, 2016; Astier, 2018; Fatas et al., 2018).”
BackgroundInfluentialAssessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap
Gerarden, T., Newell, R. G., & Stavins, R. N. (2015) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w20904 · Cited by 59
The impact of information-based interventions on conservation behavior: A meta-analysis
Nemati, M., & Penn, J. (2020) · Resource and Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.reseneeco.2020.101201 · Cited by 54
Kang, G. W., Piao, Z., & Ko, J.-Y. (2021) · International Journal of Hospitality Management · doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102934 · Cited by 55
“For example, tt has been found that campaigns using descriptive, normative appeals reduce energy consumption (Allcott, 2011) and alcohol consumption (Glider et al., 2001).”
Hiselius, L. W., & Rosqvist, L. S. (2015) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.055 · Cited by 55
“Similar results have been found in other areas (Allcott, 2011; John et al., 2013). Within the transport area, Sherwin et al. (2014) present results suggesting that social factors (defined as the process by which an individual's thoughts and actions are changed by the thoughts and actions of others) could be used to im…”
ResultReal-time, appliance-level electricity use feedback system: How to engage users?
Chen, V. L., Delmas, M. A., & Kaiser, W. J. (2013) · Energy and Buildings · doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.11.069 · Cited by 55
“…ccepted 25 November 2013 eywords: nergy use behavior nformation feedback nd-to-end system a b s t r a c t Engage is a rapidly deployable, retrofit energy monitoring system developed for direct support of a novel energy use behavior investigation and a large-scale deployment in campus apartments.”
BackgroundBolsen, T., Ferraro, P. J., & Miranda, J. J. (2013) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12052 · Cited by 52
Yakobovitch, N., & Grinstein, A. (2015) · Journal of Public Policy & Marketing · doi:10.1509/jppm.14.064 · Cited by 56
Towards Eco-city: The Role of Green Innovation
Fei, J., Wang, Y., Yang, Y., et al. (2016) · Energy Procedia · doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2016.12.029 · Cited by 55
The permissibility of nudging for sustainable energy consumption
Kasperbauer, T. J. (2017) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2017.09.015 · Cited by 54
“Though it might not seem like much, 2% is a greater reduction than has been observed through other methods, like raising the cost of energy usage (Allcott, 2011).”
BackgroundБорисовна, А. В., Cohen, J. J., Kollmann, A., & Reichl, J. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111657 · Cited by 53
“Combining various ways to motivate consumers to adjust their electricity consumption, as suggested in several resent studies (Ito et al., 2018; Asensio and Delmas, 2015; Jessoe et al., 2014; Allcott, 2011), we tested not only monetary, but also altruistic and collective incentives in one experiment in order to motivat…”
BackgroundMethodImproving acceptability of nudges: Learning from attitudes towards opt-in and opt-out policies
Yan, H., & Yates, J. F. (2019) · Judgment and Decision Making · doi:10.1017/s1930297500002886 · Cited by 52
“Nudges have helped policy makers design numerous policies to achieve their aims (Allcott, 2011; Araña & León, 2013; Halpern, 2016; Johnson & Goldstein, 2003; Johnson et al., 2012).”
BackgroundSocial Learning and Communication
BenYishay, A., & Mobarak, A. M. (2014) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w20139 · Cited by 55
Brülisauer, M., Goette, L. F., Jiang, Z., et al. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111742 · Cited by 54
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“savings and have contributed to a reduction of residential building sector energy emissions [19], [20].”
BackgroundAiding Decision Making to Reduce the Impacts of Climate Change
Kunreuther, H. C., & Weber, E. U. (2014) · Journal of Consumer Policy · doi:10.1007/s10603-013-9251-z · Cited by 63
“Using data from a randomized natural field experiment of 600,000 households, Allcott (2011) estimates that OPOWER’s Home Energy Report letters to residential utility customers that provide descriptive norms by comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbours reduce energy consumption by…”
What Causes Heterogeneous Responses to Social Comparison Messages for Water Conservation?
Brent, D. A., Lott, C., Taylor, M., et al. (2020) · Environmental and Resource Economics · doi:10.1007/s10640-020-00506-0 · Cited by 54
“In this paper, we focus primarily on the two SCMs; we refer to the traditional SCM in gallons as T1 and the new SCM in percentage reductions as T2.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialObservability and social image: On the robustness and fragility of reciprocity
Bolton, G. E., Dimant, E., & Schmidt, U. (2021) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2021.09.018 · Cited by 50
Applying Insights from Behavioral Economics to Policy Design
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“After the implementation of the project, the average power consumption of residents has decreased by 2% (Allcott 2011).”
BackgroundPromoting behavioural change to reduce thermal energy demand in households: A review
Hafner, R. J., Elmes, D. G., & Read, D. (2018) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2018.12.004 · Cited by 59
“For instance, Wilhite and Ling [23] discuss how more informative energy bills can lead to reductions of around 10% in direct energy usage (see also [24, 25]).”
BackgroundSocial dimensions of fertility behavior and consumption patterns in the Anthropocene
Barrett, S. A., Dasgupta, A., Dasgupta, P. S., Adger, W. N., Anderies, J. M., van den Bergh, J. C. J. M., Bledsoe, C., Bongaarts, J., Carpenter, S. R., Chapin, F. S., et al. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1909857117 · Cited by 58
Nudging as an Environmental Policy InstrumentPreprint
Carlsson, F., Gravert, C. A., Kurz, V., & Johansson‐Stenman, O. (2019) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3711946 · Cited by 56
“…suggests that the provision of both descriptive and injunctive messages can affect individuals’ behavior by reducing water and electricity use (e.g., Allcott, 2011; Ferraro, Miranda, and Price, 2011; Ferraro and Price, 2013; Costa and Kahn, 2013; Ayres, Raseman, and Shih, 2013; Bernedo, Ferraro,…”
BackgroundInfluentialNudging food waste decisions at restaurants
Giaccherini, M., Gilli, M., Mancinelli, S., & Zoli, M. (2021) · European Economic Review · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103722 · Cited by 51
Social norm interventions as a tool for pro-climate change
Nolan, J. M. (2021) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.06.001 · Cited by 60
Wang, F., Liu, L., Yu, Y., Li, G., Li, J., Shafie‐khah, M., & Catalào, J. P. S. (2018) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en11040770 · Cited by 52
“, more detailed electricity expenses, comparison messages or household-specific tips for the curtailment of electricity usage [14,19].”
BackgroundMethodResultSallis, A., Sherlock, J., Bonus, A., Saei, A., Gold, N., Vlaev, I., & Chadborn, T. (2019) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7476-8 · Cited by 52
MacCarthy, S., Wagner, Z., Mendoza-Graf, A., Gutierrez, C. I., Samba, C., Birungi, J., Okoboi, S., & Linnemayr, S. (2019) · BMC Infectious Diseases · doi:10.1186/s12879-020-4896-0 · Cited by 50
Referent group specificity: Optimizing normative feedback to increase residential recycling
Mertens, S. N., & Schultz, P. W. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101541 · Cited by 53
“…a variety of environmental contexts including water conservation (Jaeger & Schultz, 2017; Kurz, Donaghue, & Walker, 2005), electricity consumption (Allcott, 2011; Bergquist & Nilsson, 2016; Dolan & Metcalfe, 2015; Dwyer, Maki, & Rothman, 2015), REFERENT GROUP SPECIFICTY 6 and residential…”
MethodNudging Drivers to Safety: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Choudhary, V., Shunko, M., Netessine, S., & Koo, S. (2019) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2021.4063 · Cited by 67
Liang, Y. J., Henderson, L. K., & Kee, K. F. (2017) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2017.1288648 · Cited by 51
“LIANG ET AL. suggests that social norms can be paired with social comparison, such as competition (Allcott, 2011)—the next strategy discussed.”
BackgroundRafsanjani, H. N., Ghahramani, A., & Nabizadeh, A. H. (2020) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114892 · Cited by 56
“Another characteristic is to ascertain the appropriate frequency of feedback [10,11].”
BackgroundPeer Effects in Residential Water Conservation: Evidence from Migration
Bollinger, B. K., Burkhardt, J., & Gillingham, K. T. (2020) · American Economic Journal Economic Policy · doi:10.1257/pol.20180559 · Cited by 47
Huang, C., & Tseng, H.-Y. (2020) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su12229784 · Cited by 53
“, social norms) of the consequences of food waste, and social norms could be manipulated to reduce food waste in restaurants [27,28].”
BackgroundAlberini, A., & Filippini, M. (2017) · Energy Efficiency · doi:10.1007/s12053-017-9599-z · Cited by 51
“Policy measures based on nudges, social norms (Allcott 2011; Allcott and Rogers 2014), or information campaigns may attain improvements in the level of transient efficiency in the use of energy.”
The Power of Peers: Prompting Savings Behavior Through Social Comparison
Raue, M., D’Ambrosio, L. A., & Coughlin, J. F. (2019) · Journal of Behavioral Finance · doi:10.1080/15427560.2019.1587762 · Cited by 49
Causal forest estimation of heterogeneous and time-varying environmental policy effects
Miller, S. J. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102337 · Cited by 49
Farmers Follow the Herd: A Theoretical Model on Social Norms and Payments for Environmental Services
Coënt, P. L., Préget, R., & Thoyer, S. (2021) · Environmental and Resource Economics · doi:10.1007/s10640-020-00532-y · Cited by 49
“Field experiments are increasingly used to estimate the influence of different behavioural factors on human decisions and to help include behavioural considerations in policy design (Allcott 2011; Ferraro et al.”
BackgroundRuokamo, E., Meriläinen, T., Karhinen, S., Räihä, J., Suur-Uski, P., Timonen, L., & Svento, R. (2021) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112731 · Cited by 52
Can nudging only get you so far? Testing for nudge combination effects
Howley, P., & Ocean, N. (2021) · European Review of Agricultural Economics · doi:10.1093/erae/jbab041 · Cited by 53
“…to affect behavioural change in a variety of settings such as water use (Ferraro and Price, 2013; Jaime Torres and Carlsson, 2018), charitable contribution (e.g. Shang and Croson, 2009), binge drinking (e.g. Werch et al., 2000) and energy consumption (Allcott, 2011; Allcott and Rogers, 2014).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSouthwell, B. G., & Murphy, J. (2014) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2014.03.019 · Cited by 49
Labels as nudges? An experimental study of car eco-labels
Codagnone, C., Veltri, G., Bogliacino, F., Lupiáñez‐Villanueva, F., GASKELL, G. D., Ivchenko, A., Ortoleva, P., & Mureddu, F. (2016) · Economia Politica · doi:10.1007/s40888-016-0042-2 · Cited by 50
“A major focus in this literature is on ‘social norm’ nudges (‘‘look what your neighbours are doing’’)(4) and/ or ‘default’ nudges in the household utility consumption (energy and water) and waste recycling (Allcott 2011; Allcott and Mullainathan 2010; Allcott and Rogers 2014; Bernedo et al. 2014; Carlsson and Johansso…”
Modifying behaviour to save energy at home is harder than we think…
Erell, E., Portnov, B. A., & Assif, M. (2018) · Energy and Buildings · doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.09.010 · Cited by 50
Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments
Allcott, H., & Knittel, C. R. (2017) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w23076 · Cited by 50
“The left panels show φij from Equation (1) for the first-choice vehicles, while the right panels show φi from Equation (2) for the first- vs.”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationBergquist, M., Nyström, L., & Nilsson, A. (2020) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.1813 · Cited by 54
“Proenvironmental interventions have shown the capacity to cumulate pro-environmental actions (Allcott, 2011; Karlin, Zinger, & Ford, 2015).”
BackgroundThe impacts of energy efficiency policies: Meta-analysis
Labandeira, X., Labeaga, J. M., Linares, P., & López-Otero, X. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111790 · Cited by 58
“in households; Allcott (2011), Frederiks et al. (2015), Hahn and Metcalfe (2016) and Bager and Mundaca”
BackgroundAgarwal, S. D., Rengarajan, S., Sing, T. F., & Yang, Y. (2016) · Energy Economics · doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2016.10.014 · Cited by 48
“…used to create effective social comparisons to encourage households to reduce electricity consumption (Nolan et al., 2008; Schultz et al., 2007; Allcott, 2011a, 2011b; Thaler and Sunstein, 2011; Allcott and Mullainathan, 2010; Ayres et al., 2013; Costa and Kahn, 2013; Allcott and Rogers, 2014).”
BackgroundCrusius, J., Corcoran, K., & Mussweiler, T. (2022) · doi:10.1002/9781394266616.ch7 · Cited by 50
Social Modeling and Eating Behavior—A Narrative Review
Suwalska, J., & Bogdański, P. (2021) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu13041209 · Cited by 53
“alcohol use and cigarette smoking in young people) [56,57].”
BackgroundYork, A. M., Drummond Otten, C., BurnSilver, S., Neuberg, S. L., & Anderies, J. M. (2021) · Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2021.06.001 · Cited by 47
Carfora, V., Buscicchio, G., & Catellani, P. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su131910841 · Cited by 56
“(2017) [32] observed that social norm interventions lead either to shifting behavior in a desirable way or to a counterproductive effect [33].”
Background
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
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