Conference Agenda

We assess the impact of the recent relabeling of the EU energy label from A-plus categories to a clear letter scale (A-G) on consumer purchase decisions of energy-related household appliances. Using granular purchase data in the refrigerator and freezer market, we find that purchase shares of relabeled models in the least efficient label classes decrease after relabeling, suggesting that consumers switch from lower to higher efficient categories when confronted with the new energy label. We find evidence that this decrease is due to the combined effect of a clear letter scale and a reduction in the coarseness of label classes, i.e. the splitting of the medium A++ label into E and F classes.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by a significant reduction in its gas supplies

to Europe, causing sharp energy price surges and prompting governments to respond with

public appeals and programs aimed at reducing consumption. This paper investigates the

relative contributions of price increases and non-monetary factors, such as public appeals, to

residential energy savings during the crisis. Using a unique building-level dataset from Germany,

we employ a difference-in-difference framework comparing buildings which were facing

immediate price increases with buildings with constant prices to isolate price-driven savings

from contemporaneous non-monetary effects. Our findings reveal that while increased prices

led to moderate short-run energy savings, the majority of observed savings were driven by

non-monetary factors. We identify a relatively low short-run energy price elasticity of demand.

Combining machine learning methods to predict predict energy consumption without

the energy crisis based on previous data, we calculate building-level price-driven and nonprice-

driven savings, analyzing their variation with socio-demographic characteristics using

census data. These results highlight the critical role of non-monetary interventions in energy

conservation during crises.

Reducing municipal waste is a challenge for urban policymakers around the world. We construct a novel dataset of municipal-level waste from Italy between 2010 and 2020 to study the role of membership in the Zero Waste Europe Initiative. Employing machine learning techniques, we analyze the interplay of socio-economic, geographical, and institutional factors that motivate cities to become Zero Waste Europe Initiative adopters. Controlling for these factors in our matching procedure, we then examine to what extent participating in the Zero Waste initiative can act as a commitment device for cities. In a difference-in-differences setting, we compare the trajectory of the 314 towns that joined the Zero Waste initiative at different points in time to a control group. Our preliminary analysis suggests that membership in the Zero Waste program, in our sample period, does not yet lead to a decrease in a city's waste per capita level. However, we observe a significantly higher share of separately collected waste in Zero Waste cities which is both statistically and economically significant.

Since field experiments may serve as a bridge between laboratory and naturally-occurring data, the present paper aims to test to what extent individuals belonging to a group react differently to nudges conditional on the experimental context. Data from 597 individuals participating in a laboratory experiment in 2023, France, and 1292 households in a field experiment between 2022 and 2023 in Spain, allows us to estimate the average treatment effects of providing information on observed, peer and optimal use of two public goods: a hypothetical group pool, and collective-metered water from a real block of apartments. Nudging with optimal behavior is the strategy that performs better, fostering individual preservation of the public good in the lab, while it leads to a boomerang effect in the field for the low-use buildings. The effects of nudging are also conditional on the group sociodemographic composition: groups with a majority of elder members, and/or women are more prone to follow nudges in the right direction. Additionally, information that confirms the belief of other members misusing the group’s public good reverses the desired impact of nudging.