IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v103y2021ics0140988321004357.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reversing impatience: Framing mechanisms to increase the purchase of energy-saving appliances

Author

Listed:
  • Silvi, Mariateresa
  • Padilla Rosa, Emilio

Abstract

Most environmental decisions involve intertemporal trade-offs, in that they require foregoing immediate gratification for the sake of future environmental quality. One such example is investing in energy efficiency, which entails an initial upfront cost in exchange for a future stream of energy and economic savings. Our experiment explores the role of individual temporal preferences in the decision to invest in energy conservation. We report results from a study on a nationally-representative sample of 2010 United States adults. Participants chose between appliances that differed solely in price and operating costs. We manipulated the salience of energy costs and primed participants with future-oriented messages. Our treatments increased energy-efficient choices by 24 percentage points compared with the status-quo scenario. Present-oriented individuals are less likely to purchase energy-efficient appliances but loss-framed messages that highlight the opportunity cost of inefficient appliances diminish the effect of impatience on refrigerators choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvi, Mariateresa & Padilla Rosa, Emilio, 2021. "Reversing impatience: Framing mechanisms to increase the purchase of energy-saving appliances," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:103:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321004357
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988321004357
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105563?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas W. Davis & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2016. "Does Better Information Lead to Better Choices? Evidence from Energy-Efficiency Labels," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 589-625.
    2. Hunt Allcott & Dmitry Taubinsky, 2015. "Evaluating Behaviorally Motivated Policy: Experimental Evidence from the Lightbulb Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(8), pages 2501-2538, August.
    3. Faralla, Valeria & Novarese, Marco & Ardizzone, Antonella, 2017. "Framing Effects in Intertemporal Choice: A Nudge Experiment," MPRA Paper 82086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Hunt Allcott, 2011. "Consumers' Perceptions and Misperceptions of Energy Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 98-104, May.
    5. Richard G. Newell & Juha Siikamäki, 2015. "Individual Time Preferences and Energy Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 196-200, May.
    6. Giuseppe Attanasi & Nikolaos Georgantzís & Valentina Rotondi & Daria Vigani, 2018. "Lottery- and survey-based risk attitudes linked through a multichoice elicitation task," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 341-372, May.
    7. Daniel Read & Shane Frederick & Burcu Orsel & Juwaria Rahman, 2005. "Four Score and Seven Years from Now: The Date/Delay Effect in Temporal Discounting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(9), pages 1326-1335, September.
    8. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    9. Mark A. Andor, Andreas Gerster, and Stephan Sommer, 2020. "Consumer Inattention, Heuristic Thinking and the Role of Energy Labels," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    10. Richard T. Carson & Nicholas E. Flores & Kerry M. Martin & Jennifer L. Wright, 1996. "Contingent Valuation and Revealed Preference Methodologies: Comparing the Estimates for Quasi-Public Goods," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(1), pages 80-99.
    11. Blasch, Julia & Filippini, Massimo & Kumar, Nilkanth, 2019. "Boundedly rational consumers, energy and investment literacy, and the display of information on household appliances," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 39-58.
    12. Jane E. J. Ebert & Drazen Prelec, 2007. "The Fragility of Time: Time-Insensitivity and Valuation of the Near and Far Future," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(9), pages 1423-1438, September.
    13. Stadelmann, Marcel & Schubert, Renate, 2018. "How Do Different Designs of Energy Labels Influence Purchases of Household Appliances? A Field Study in Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 112-123.
    14. Lowenstein, George & Prelec, Drazen, 1991. "Negative Time Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 347-352, May.
    15. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Meissner, Thomas & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "A large-scale test of the effects of time discounting, risk aversion, loss aversion, and present bias on household adoption of energy-efficient technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 377-393.
    16. Hunt Allcott & Nathan Wozny, 2014. "Gasoline Prices, Fuel Economy, and the Energy Paradox," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 779-795, December.
    17. Daniel Read & Christopher Y. Olivola & David J. Hardisty, 2017. "The Value of Nothing: Asymmetric Attention to Opportunity Costs Drives Intertemporal Decision Making," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4277-4297, December.
    18. Loewenstein, George F & Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. "Do Workers Prefer Increasing Wage Profiles?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 67-84, January.
    19. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein, 2008. "Conflicting motives in evaluations of sequences," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 221-235, December.
    20. Felix Ebeling & Sebastian Lotz, 2015. "Domestic uptake of green energy promoted by opt-out tariffs," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 868-871, September.
    21. Berns, Gregory S. & Loewenstein, George & Laibson, David I., 2007. "Intertemporal Choice - Toward an Integrative Framework," Scholarly Articles 4554332, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    22. Thomas Epper & Helga Fehr-Duda & Renate Schubert, 2011. "Energy-Using Durables: The Role of Time Discounting in Investment Decisions," IED Working paper 11-16, IED Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich.
    23. Jerry A. Hausman, 1979. "Individual Discount Rates and the Purchase and Utilization of Energy-Using Durables," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 33-54, Spring.
    24. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue, 2002. "Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 351-401, June.
    25. Train, Kenneth, 1985. "Discount rates in consumers' energy-related decisions: A review of the literature," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(12), pages 1243-1253.
    26. Joseph K Goodman & Selin A Malkoc & Mosi Rosenboim, 2019. "The Material-Experiential Asymmetry in Discounting: When Experiential Purchases Lead to More Impatience," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(4), pages 671-688.
    27. Steffen Kallbekken & Håkon Sælen & Erlend Hermansen, 2013. "Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: A Field Experiment on Lifetime Energy Costs and Household Appliances," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anne Kesselring, 2023. "Willingness-to-Pay for Energy Efficiency: Evidence from the European Common Market," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(4), pages 893-945, December.
    2. Huaccha, Gissell, 2023. "Regional persistence of the energy efficiency gap: Evidence from England and Wales," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    3. Park, Jiyong & Son, WooJin & Moon, HyungBin & Woo, JongRoul, 2023. "Nudging energy efficiency behavior: The effect of message framing on implicit discount rate," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    4. Zhiyu Lv & Xu Zhang, 2023. "Influencing Factor Analysis on Energy-Saving Refrigerator Purchases from the Supply and Demand Sides," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Meissner, Thomas & Faure, Corinne, 2023. "Making the factors underlying the implicit discount rate tangible," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mitsutsugu Hamamoto, 2023. "Estimating consumers’ discount rates in energy-saving investment decisions: a comparison of revealed and stated approaches," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(7), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Fischbacher, Urs & Schudy, Simeon & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2021. "Heterogeneous preferences and investments in energy saving measures," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet, 2018. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to building energy savings," Working Papers 2018.07, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    4. M. del Mar Solà & A. de Ayala & I. Galarraga, 2021. "The Effect of Providing Monetary Information on Energy Savings for Household Appliances: A Field Trial in Spain," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 279-310, June.
    5. Stadelmann, Marcel & Schubert, Renate, 2018. "How Do Different Designs of Energy Labels Influence Purchases of Household Appliances? A Field Study in Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 112-123.
    6. Burlinson, Andrew & Giulietti, Monica & Battisti, Giuliana, 2018. "Technology adoption, consumer inattention and heuristic decision-making: Evidence from a UK district heating scheme," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 1873-1886.
    7. Giovanna d’Adda & Yu Gao & Massimo Tavoni, 2022. "A randomized trial of energy cost information provision alongside energy-efficiency classes for refrigerator purchases," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(4), pages 360-368, April.
    8. Samdruk Dharshing & Stefanie Lena Hille, 2017. "The Energy Paradox Revisited: Analyzing the Role of Individual Differences and Framing Effects in Information Perception," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 485-508, December.
    9. Massimo Filippini & Nilkanth Kumar & Suchita Srinivasan, 2021. "Behavioral Anomalies and Fuel Efficiency: Evidence from Motorcycles in Nepal," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 21/353, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    10. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan, 2020. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to energy savings in the building sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Julia Blasch & Claudio Daminato, 2018. "Behavioral anomalies and energy-related individual choices: the role of status-quo bias," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 18/300, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    12. Carrasco-Garcés, Moisés & Vásquez-Lavín, Felipe & Ponce Oliva, Roberto D. & Diaz Pincheira, Francisco & Barrientos, Manuel, 2021. "Estimating the implicit discount rate for new technology adoption of wood-burning stoves," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    13. Stefano Ceolotto & Eleanor Denny, 2021. "Putting a new 'spin' on energy labels: measuring the impact of reframing energy efficiency on tumble dryer choices in a multi-country experiment," Trinity Economics Papers tep1521, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    14. Andreas Hefti & Peiyao Shen & King King Li, 2021. "Igniting deliberation in high stake decisions: a field study," ECON - Working Papers 378, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    15. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2016. "Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 321-331.
    16. E. Denny, 2022. "Long-term Energy Cost Labelling for Appliances: Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial in Ireland," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 369-409, September.
    17. Olsthoorn, Mark & Schleich, Joachim & Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte & Durand, Antoine & Faure, Corinne, 2023. "Beyond energy efficiency: Do consumers care about life-cycle properties of household appliances?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    18. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Meissner, Thomas & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "A large-scale test of the effects of time discounting, risk aversion, loss aversion, and present bias on household adoption of energy-efficient technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 377-393.
    19. Sahari, Anna, 2021. "Household heterogeneity in valuation of heating energy costs," Working Papers 141, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Gilbert, Ben & LaRiviere, Jacob & Novan, Kevin, 2022. "Uncertainty and additionality in energy efficiency programs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:103:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321004357. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.