Energy Efficiency
EE Gap Slides [link]Allcott and Sweeney Slides [link]
Weatherization Wars [link]
Key Points
- Basic economics of adoption of energy saving capital.
- Review evidence and policy motivated by an apparent energy efficiency gap.
- Discuss “rational” and behavioral explanations.
- Using field experiments to test different explanations/ policy interventions.
Required reading and response questions
Lecture 1
Required Reading
Response questions
- What is the energy efficiency gap?
- What are some “rational” explanations?
Optional Reading
Lecture 2
Required Readings
Read the following two experimental papers. For each paper, you don’t have to read the whole thing. Read the abstract and the intro, then skim the rest to understand the experimental setup and key results.
Response questions
For each paper, write one paragraph explaining:
- What is the research question in each paper?
- How does the experiment allow the authors to answer the question?
Lecture 3
Required Readings
Recently, there was a very public debate of the benefits of weatherization. Some prominent economists conducted a study which called into question the wisdom of a popular energy efficiency program.
- Read this summary of their critique here, and a blog post from one of the authors here
- You can read a rebuttal in the New York Times here (optional)
- You can read the published article on the study here (Fowlie, Greenstone and Wolfram QJE 2018)
Response questions:
- Do you find the economist’s criticism of this program fair?
- What did you take away from this back and forth?