Cited by 2,802Pro-Environmental Behavior and AttitudesEnergy, Environment, and Transportation PoliciesExperimental Behavioral Economics Studies

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Social norms and energy conservation

Allcott, Hunt·2011·Journal of Public Economics

DOI 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.03.003

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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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What can we learn from high-frequency appliance-level energy metering? Results from a field experiment
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“(2013) for the highest quality studies that include a control group as well as weather and demographics controls such as Allcott (2011).”
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“Allcott (2011) Our study also highlights the challenges of sustaining the impact of the emissions intervention.”
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“The rich literature on motivating people to adopt energy-saving or other environmentally responsible behaviors (see Alcott 2011, Delmas and Lessem 2012, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center 2012, and references therein) holds implications for OM. For example, that literature shows that social comparison strongly motivate…”
Background
Block Configuration Modeling: A novel simulation model to emulate building occupant peer networks and their impact on building energy consumption
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Can evolutionary design of social networks make it easier to be ‘green’?
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Borrowing to Save Energy An Assessment of Energy-Efficiency Financing Programs
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Framework for selecting occupancy-focused energy interventions in buildings
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“Allcott (2011) determined that energy use decreased approximately 2% with these reports, and that energy use began to regress between quarterly reports.”
Background
Energy-saving effect of automatic home energy report utilizing home energy management system data in Japan
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Performance Effects of Setting a High Reference Point for Peer‐Performance Comparison
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Perceived government initiatives: Scale development, validation and impact on consumers' pro-environmental behaviour
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Information campaigns for residential energy conservation
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Consequences of a price incentive on free riding and electric energy consumption
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“Large-scale experimental studies have indeed shown that nonprice incentives, such as feedback containing information about neighbors’ EEC (11) or environmental or health consequences of EEC (10), may substantially reduce EEC.”
Background
Can the wounds of war be healed? Experimental evidence on reconciliation in Sierra Leone
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“As a result, recent work emphasizes the role of social approaches and norms in energy consumption, and seeks to operationalize these behavioural insights for energy efficiency (e.g. Allcott, 2011; Karvonen, 2013; Schweber & Leiringer, 2012).”
Background
Competition and norms: A self-defeating combination?
Alberts, G., Gürgüç, Z., Koutroumpis, P., Martin, R., Muûls, M., & Napp, T. (2016) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2016.06.001 · Cited by 39
“This weekly energy report, emailed to participants, was developed based on a number of well known pre-established ones such as the OPOWER report (Allcott, 2011) and contains two main sections, namely a social comparison module and an action steps module (see Fig.”
Method
The normative feedback approach for energy conservation behavior in the military community
Shen, M., Young, R., & Cui, Q.-B. (2016) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2016.08.014 · Cited by 39
Get thee to the gym! A field experiment on improving exercise habits
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“It has been shown that providing feedback is an effective tool for achieving electricity savings (e.g., Allcott, 2011; Costa and Kahn, 2013; Weber et al., 2017b), even though wide discrepancies arise in terms of effectiveness due to different feedback channels (e.g., by post, online, by SMS, or…”
Encouraging farmers' participation in the Conservation Stewardship Program: A field experiment
Czap, N. V., Czap, H. J., Banerjee, S., & Burbach, M. E. (2019) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.03.010 · Cited by 39
Social norm-based gamification to promote eco-friendly food choice
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The behavioural effect of electronic home energy reports: Evidence from a randomised field trial in the United States
Henry, M. L., Ferraro, P. J., & Kontoleon, A. V. (2019) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2019.06.039 · Cited by 39

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)
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.03.003
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
Licence: www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
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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