@article{BlaschFilippiniKumar2017, author = {Blasch, Julia and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth}, title = {Boundedly rational consumers, energy and investment literacy, and the display of information on household appliances}, volume = {2019}, journal = {Resource and Energy Economics}, number = {56}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0928-7655}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2017.06.001}, pages = {39 -- 58}, year = {2017}, abstract = {It is an ongoing debate how to increase the adoption of energy-efficient light bulbs and household appliances in the presence of the so-called 'energy efficiency gap'. One measure to support consumers' decision-making towards the purchase of more efficient appliances is the display of energy-related information in the form of energy-efficiency labels on electric consumer products. Another measure is to educate consumers in order to increase their level of energy and investment literacy. Thus, two questions arise when it comes to the display of energy-related information on appliances: (1) What kind of information should be displayed to enable consumers to make rational and efficient choices? (2) What abilities and prior knowledge do consumers need to possess to be able to process this information? In this paper, using a series of (recursive) bivariate probit models and three samples of 583, 877 and 1375 households from three major Swiss urban areas, we show how displaying information on the future energy consumption of electrical appliances in monetary terms (CHF), rather than in physical units (kWh), increases the probability that an individual makes a calculation and identifies the appliance with the lowest lifetime cost. In addition, our econometric results suggest that individuals with a higher level of energy and, in particular, investment literacy are more likely to perform an optimization rather than relying on a decision-making heuristic. These individuals are also more likely to identify the most (cost-)efficient appliance.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaschFilippiniKumaretal.2022, author = {Blasch, Julia and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth and Martinez-Cruz, Adan Leobardo}, title = {Boosting the choice of energy-efficient home appliances}, volume = {54}, journal = {Applied Economics}, subtitle = {the effectiveness of two types of decision support}, number = {31}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, issn = {1466-4283}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2021.2014395}, pages = {3598 -- 3620}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Consumers' limitations in assessing the lifetime cost of household appliances may sustain the much-cited energy efficiency gap. We analyse the impact of an individual's energy and investment literacy and two different types of decision support on the ability to identify the appliance with the lower lifetime cost in an online randomized controlled trial among two independently chosen samples of the Swiss population. In a decision task, participants choose between appliances with different lifetime cost. One treatment offers a short education programme on how to calculate the lifetime cost of an appliance - via a set of information slides. The second treatment provides access to an online lifetime-cost calculator tool. We find that pre-treatment energy and investment literacy are positively associated with the probability of identifying the appliance with the lowest lifetime cost. Evidence in this paper suggest that both decision aids boost identification of energy-efficient appliances. We discuss strategies to scale up these boosters.}, language = {en} } @article{BlaschBoogenFilippinietal.2017, author = {Blasch, Julia and Boogen, Nina and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth}, title = {Explaining electricity demand and the role of energy and investment literacy on end-use efficiency of Swiss households}, volume = {2017}, journal = {Energy Economics}, number = {68, Supplement 1}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0140-9883}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2017.12.004}, pages = {89 -- 102}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @article{BlaschBoogenDaminatoetal.2021, author = {Blasch, Julia and Boogen, Nina and Daminato, Claudio and Filippini, Massimo}, title = {Empower the Consumer! Energy-related Financial Literacy and its Implications for Economic Decision Making}, volume = {10}, journal = {Economics of energy \& environmental policy}, number = {2}, publisher = {IAEE}, address = {Cleveland}, issn = {2160-5890}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5547/2160-5890.10.2.jbla}, pages = {149 -- 180}, year = {2021}, language = {en} } @techreport{BlaschFilippiniKumaretal.2017, author = {Blasch, Julia and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth and Martinez-Cruz, Adan Leobardo}, title = {Narrowing the energy efficiency gap}, volume = {17/276}, series = {Economics Working Paper Series}, subtitle = {The impact of educational programs, online support tools and energy-related investment literacy}, publisher = {ETH Zurich, Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH)}, address = {Z{\"u}rich}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000187391}, pages = {28}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @techreport{BlaschBoogenFilippinietal.2017, author = {Blasch, Julia and Boogen, Nina and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth}, title = {The role of energy and investment literacy for residential electricity demand and end-use efficiency}, volume = {17/269}, series = {Economics Working Paper Series}, publisher = {ETH Zurich, Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH)}, address = {Z{\"u}rich}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-010870845}, pages = {20}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @techreport{BlaschFilippiniKumar2016, author = {Blasch, Julia and Filippini, Massimo and Kumar, Nilkanth}, title = {Boundedly rational consumers, energy and investment literacy, and the display of information on household appliances}, volume = {16/249}, series = {Economics Working Paper Series}, publisher = {ETH Zurich, Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH)}, address = {Z{\"u}rich}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-010656875}, pages = {38}, year = {2016}, language = {en} }