Working Paper: NBER ID: w31931
Authors: Omar Alubaydli; Alecia W. Cassidy; Anomitro Chatterjee; Ahmed Khalifa; Michael K. Price
Abstract: High resource users often have the strongest response to behavioral interventions promoting conservation. Yet, litlle is known about how to motivate them. We implement a field experiment in Qatar, where residential customers have some of the highest energy use per capita in the world. Our dataset consists of 207,325 monthly electricity meter readings from a panel of 6,096 customers. We employ two normative treatments priming identity - a religious message quoting the Qur’an, and a national message reminding households that Qatar prioritizes energy conservation. The treatments reduce electricity use by 3.8% and both messages are equally effective. Using machine learning methods on supplemental survey data, we elucidate how agency, motivation, and responsibility activate conservation responses to our identity primes.
Keywords: Electricity Use; Field Experiment; Energy Conservation; Behavioral Interventions; Identity Priming
JEL Codes: C93; D90; Q4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| belief in the effectiveness of conservation efforts (Q57) | responsiveness to treatments (I12) |
| agency and identity (L85) | conservation behavior (Q20) |
| religious message quoting the Quran (Z12) | electricity use (L94) |
| national message emphasizing Qatar’s commitment to energy conservation (Q48) | electricity use (L94) |
| identity priming interventions (C92) | electricity conservation behaviors (Q41) |