We examine a choice setting in which residential electricity consumers may respond to non-financial incentives in addition to prices. Using data from a natural field experiment that exposed some households to a change in their electricity rates, we find that households reduced electricity usage...

Imperfect information about product attributes inhibits efficiency in many choice settings, but can be overcome by providing simple, lowcost information. We use a randomized control trial to test the effect of high-frequency information about residential electricity usage on the price elasticity...

This paper presents experimental evidence that information feedback dramatically increases the price elasticity of demand in a setting where signals about quantity consumed are traditionally coarse and infrequent. In a randomized controlled trial, residential electricity customers are exposed to...

This paper tests the hypothesis that the expansion of improved drinking water supplies in rural India reduced household expenditure on water quality, offsetting some of the quality benefits from source protection. I estimate demand for in-home treatment using geological characteristics to...

This paper evaluates the effects of annual fluctuations in temperature and precipitation on labor allocation in rural Mexico. We use a 28-year panel of individuals to investigate how people adjust their sector and location of work in response to year-to-year variation in weather. Controlling for...

Building on Gokhale, Kotlikoff, and Sluchynsky's (2002) study of Americans' incentives to work full or part time, this paper uses ESPlanner, a life-cycle financial planning program, in conjunction with detailed modeling of transfer programs to determine a) total marginal net tax rates on current...

What do we know about the size of the rebound effect? Should we believe claims that energy efficiency improvements lead to an increase in energy use? This paper clarifies what the rebound effect is, and provides a guide for economists and policymakers interested in its magnitude. We describe how...

I estimate a dynamic structural model of demand for air conditioners, the most energy-intensive home appliance in the US. The model explores the links between demand for durable goods and expected changes in key attributes: energy efficiency and price. I incorporate expectations explicitly as a...

We explore two split incentive issues between owners and occupants of residential dwellings: heating or cooling incentives are suboptimal when the occupant does not pay for energy use, and insulation incentives are suboptimal when the occupant cannot perfectly observe the owner's insulation...

We estimate the effect of Internet on the volume of used car transactions. From 1997 to 2007, Internet use tripled in California, causing an increase in volume-of-trade of 7.2 %. This implies a substantial welfare gain via improved allocative efficiency.