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Information acquisition and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from a field experiment

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  • Matsukawa, Isamu

Abstract

This article uses hourly data on household usage of an in-home display (IHD) in a randomized field experiment to investigate how acquiring information from IHDs affects electricity usage of households. Providing IHDs, which enables households to see a graph of their half-hourly electricity consumption in real time, is a promising policy intervention that corrects for biases associated with inattention and limited information-processing capacity by promoting salience and learning. The immediate effect of providing an IHD is heightened household attention to information on consumption, and the repetition of attention is expected to improve households’ capacity to process information.

Suggested Citation

  • Matsukawa, Isamu, 2018. "Information acquisition and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from a field experiment," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:53:y:2018:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2018.02.001
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    Cited by:

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    2. Yokoo, Hide-Fumi & 横尾, 英史, 2020. "Ethics of randomized field experiments: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," Discussion Papers 2020-07, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    In-home displays; Real-time information feedback; Limited information-processing capacity; Inattention; Energy conservation; Boomerang effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

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