Nudging and boosting for equity? Towards a behavioural economics of energy justice

Valle, Nives Della; Sareen, Siddharth

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101589

Cited by 45 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 72 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For this particular demographic, a more holistic behaviorallyinformed intervention than one based solely on nudging, might be desirable. As an example, an intervention that provides individuals with basic facts on energy poverty might be implemented to boost skills and knowledge required for identifying and sharing their needs and problems related to home energy comfort and energy consumption (DellaValle and Sareen, 2020). This might not only a way to harness the local experience, thus truly engaging target individuals in the process of betterment of their conditions, but also a way to further increase their capabilities and optimize their energy-use to fit their specific needs.…”

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling Energy Poverty Through Behavioral Change: A Pilot Study on Social Comparison Interventions in Social Housing Districts

Caballero

Valle

2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Behavioral Economics has in recent years played a key role in informing the design of non-price interventions aimed at promoting energy conservation behaviors in residential housing. Some of the most influential contributions of the discipline in an applied setting have centered around the development of norm-based interventions. The success that these interventions have had in specific contexts presents an opportunity to exploit them as tools for tackling a prevalent type of poverty at the EU level: energy poverty. Recent contributions to the literature highlight the role of inefficient energy behavior as a significant driver of this particular type of poverty, which is characterized by an inability to afford the basic energy services necessary to guarantee a decent standard of living. Therefore, the effectiveness of norm-based interventions in vulnerable populations merits further investigation to determine whether this approach can suitably address the behavioral components of energy poverty by promoting efficient energy consumption and conservation efforts. This study reports on a pilot conducted in an exemplary social housing context (located in Bolzano, Italy) with the aim to assess the effectiveness of social comparison interventions in energy vulnerable groups. Our investigated cohort covers an initial small sample of apartments with a large representatives of elderly individuals and other energy-vulnerable groups. Using a design that combines appeals to injunctive and descriptive norms embedded within In-Home Devices (IHD) in recently retrofitted homes, our objective is to set a basis for the assessment of effectiveness of these types of interventions in social housing populations. Our study seeks to provide useful methodological insights to policy makers on how to effectively design behaviorally informed interventions aimed at tackling energy poverty. Despite the current data limitations, our results do seem to suggest that uniformly applied norm-based interventions may have potentially backfiring effects in small-scale implementations. Therefore, they suggest that attention needs to be paid to household composition and pre-existing levels of consumption, when designing behavior-change interventions in these groups.JEL Classification: C93; D03; D04; D12; D19; D91; Q40.

show abstract

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling Energy Poverty Through Behavioral Change: A Pilot Study on Social Comparison Interventions in Social Housing Districts

Caballero

Valle

2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Realworld choices generally involve a much greater range of alternatives, that differ on a wider range of dimensions, and where both probabilities and pay-offs are less well-specified. This is particularly true once one considers nudge and boost applications outside of the domain of personal finances, e.g., healthcare (Patel et al, 2018) or energy justice (DellaValle and Sareen, 2020). Therefore, the current experimental task structure may overstate the benefit of the boost intervention, as the EV calculation is simple compared to most real-world settings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boosting promotes advantageous risk-taking

Folke

Bertoldo

D’Souza

et al. 2021

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to the prevalence and importance of choices with uncertain outcomes, it is essential to establish what interventions improve risky decision-making, how they work, and for whom. Two types of low-intensity behavioural interventions are promising candidates: nudges and boosts. Nudges guide people to better decisions by altering how a choice is presented, without restricting any options or modifying the underlying payoff matrix. Boosts, on the other hand, teach people decision strategies that focus their attention on key aspects of the choice, which allows them to make more informed decisions. A recent study compared these two types of interventions and found that boosts worked better for risky choices aimed at maximising gains, whereas nudges worked best for choices aimed at minimising losses. Though intriguing, these findings could not be easily interpreted because of a limitation in the items used. Here we replicate that study, with an extended item set. We find that boosts work by promoting risk-taking when it is beneficial, whereas nudges have a consistent (lesser) impact, regardless of whether risk-taking is beneficial or not. These results suggest that researchers and policymakers should consider the base rate risk propensity of the target population when designing decision-support systems.

show abstract

“…Policy makers are often inspired by behavioral science in their policy design and policy adaptations to different contexts (Schleyer, 2017;DellaValle and Sareen, 2020). According to Dolan et al (2012), the most effective interventions for persuading individuals to adopt green behaviors are those which aim to change contexts and mindsets which suggests that nudges, goals, and boosts might be effective behavioral interventions.…”

Section: Behavioral Tools and Electricity Consumption: A Short Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boosts are seen as different from nudges and "self-nudges" (Reijula and Hertwig, 2020) and are attracting the attention of policy makers and practitioners (DellaValle and Sareen, 2020). Boosts allow citizens to improve their skills (Herwig, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing consumption of electricity: A field experiment in Monaco with boosts and goal setting

Lazaric

Toumi

2022

Ecological Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nudging and boosting for equity? Towards a behavioural economics of energy justice

Cited by 45 publications

References 72 publications

Tackling Energy Poverty Through Behavioral Change: A Pilot Study on Social Comparison Interventions in Social Housing Districts

Tackling Energy Poverty Through Behavioral Change: A Pilot Study on Social Comparison Interventions in Social Housing Districts

Boosting promotes advantageous risk-taking

Reducing consumption of electricity: A field experiment in Monaco with boosts and goal setting

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About