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Exploring the behavioral and welfare implications of social-comparison messages in residential water and electricity

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  • Taylor, Michael H.
  • Rollins, Kimberly
  • Lott, Corey

Abstract

Our model shows that how consumers adjust their water or electricity use in response to social-comparison messages (SCM), and the welfare impacts of SCM, depend on the behavioral mechanism driving conservation and whether consumers’ water/energy use is at satiation.

Suggested Citation

  • Taylor, Michael H. & Rollins, Kimberly & Lott, Corey, 2018. "Exploring the behavioral and welfare implications of social-comparison messages in residential water and electricity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 65-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:168:y:2018:i:c:p:65-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.04.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel A. Brent & Corey Lott & Michael Taylor & Joseph Cook & Kimberly Rollins & Shawn Stoddard, 2020. "What Causes Heterogeneous Responses to Social Comparison Messages for Water Conservation?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 77(3), pages 503-537, November.
    2. Brent, Daniel & Wichman, Casey, 2022. "Do Behavioral Nudges Interact with Prevailing Economic Incentives? Pairing Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Water Consumption," RFF Working Paper Series 22-02, Resources for the Future.
    3. Imre Kovách & Boldizsár Gergely Megyesi, 2023. "Energy Use Research in the Social Sciences–Introduction to a Research Topic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-8, April.
    4. Céline Nauges & Dale Whittington, 2019. "Social Norms Information Treatments in the Municipal Water Supply Sector: Some New Insights on Benefits and Costs," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-40, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Water conservation; Energy conservation; Social norms; Field experiments; Satiation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

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