At least one co-author has disclosed a financial relationship of potential relevance for this research. Further information is available online at http://www.nber.org/papers/w23089.ack NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

This paper evaluates a large-scale pilot program run by a company called OPOWER, previously known as Positive Energy, to mail home energy use reports to residential utility consumers. The reports include energy conservation information as well as social comparisons between a household's energy use and that of its neighbors. Using data from a randomized natural …eld experiment at 80,000 treatment and control households in Minnesota, I estimate that the monthly program reduces energy consumption by 1.9 to 2.0 percent relative to baseline. In a treatment arm receiving reports each quarter, the e¤ects decay over the months between letters and increase again upon receipt of the next letter. I provide evidence to suggest that at least some of this e¤ect is because consumers'attention is malleable and non-durable. I show that "pro…ling," or using a statistical decision rule to target the program at households whose observable characteristics predict larger treatment e¤ects, could substantially improve cost e¤ectiveness in future programs. The results provide additional evidence that non-price "nudges" can substantially a¤ect consumer behavior.

Following the 2016 US presidential election, many have expressed concern about the effects of false stories (“fake news”), circulated largely through social media. We discuss the economics of fake news and present new data on its consumption prior to the election. Drawing on web browsing data, archives of fact-checking websites, and results from a new online survey, we find: 1) social media was an important but not dominant source of election news, with 14 percent of Americans calling social media their “most important” source; 2) of the known false news stories that appeared in the three months before the election, those favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared 8 million times; 3) the average American adult saw on the order of one or perhaps several fake news stories in the months around the election, with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them; and 4) people are much more likely to believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks.

NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.