Smart metering allows electricity utilities to provide consumers with better information on their energy usage and to apply time of use tariffs. These measures have been shown to reduce electricity consumption and induce time-shifting of demand. Less is known about how they affect residential...

The increased availability and prevalence of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provides opportunities to use such products as substitutes for transportation. Common examples of this substitution are telecommuting, video conferences, and online classes. However, despite the...

Using data from a randomized experiment in rural China, this paper studies the influence of social networks on weather insurance adoption and the mechanisms through which social networks operate. To quantify network effects, the experiment offers intensive information sessions about the...

The objective of this paper is to propose a multidisciplinary approach for the analysis of demand and innovation. It combines insights from studies on technology diffusion, evolutionary economics and cognitive psychology to argue that consumption and demand are learning processes driven by...

Mediante la aplicación del análisis discriminante se analizan los hábitos de uso y consumo de las más representativas tecnologías de información de los universitarios de Tijuana. Se encuentra que la penetración y el gasto en tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC) dependen del...

Governments justify support of Internet diffusion on two grounds: (1) to overcome a persistent digital divide in broadband availability and (2) to facilitate online activities that are socially or economically desirable. This paper assesses both these claims. Using individual-level data from...

Wo steht die Schweiz heute bezüglich Akzeptanz, Verbreitung und Nutzung von neuen Arbeits-und Geschäftsformen in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft? Eine der bisher umfassendsten und gründlichsten internationalen empirischen Untersuchungen in der Bevölkerung und bei Betrieben gibt auf diese Frage...

Using the 1999 durable consumption survey data in rural China, we examine the importance of local spillovers in the diffusion of three major durable goods, i.e., color television set, washing machine, and refrigerator. We find that, with control for many family characteristics, a household is...

If government revenues from a flat-rate income tax are spent on public factors and public factors are used for human capital production and human capital is used for the production of technical progress, then a higher rate of taxation will lead to a higher rate of technical progress if steady...

A fruitful recent theoretical literature has related human capital and technological development with income (and wages) inequality. However, empirical assessments on the relationship are still scarce. We relate human capital and total factor productivity (TFP) with inequality and discover that,...