Open AccessENERGY CONSERVATION “NUDGES” AND ENVIRONMENTALIST IDEOLOGY: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY FIELD EXPERIMENT
Author(s) -
Costa Dora L.,
Kahn Matthew E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the european economic association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.792
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1542-4774
pISSN - 1542-4766
DOI - 10.1111/jeea.12011
Subject(s) - nudge theory , energy conservation , electricity , ideology , economics , politics , public economics , consumption (sociology) , energy (signal processing) , natural resource economics , business , environmental economics , political science , sociology , law , engineering , social science , electrical engineering , statistics , mathematics
“Nudges” are being widely promoted to encourage energy conservation. We show that the popular electricity conservation “nudge” of providing feedback to households on own and peers’ home electricity usage in a home electricity report is two to four times more effective with political liberals than with conservatives. Political conservatives are more likely than liberals to opt out of receiving the home electricity report and to report disliking the report. Our results suggest that energy conservation nudges need to be targeted to be most effective.