List, John A. <br/><br/>
Harnessing Policy Complementarities to Conserve Energy:  Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment / 
John A. List, Robert D. Metcalfe, Michael K. Price, Florian Rundhammer. 
 - Cambridge, Mass.  National Bureau of Economic Research  2017. 
 - 1 online resource:  illustrations (black and white); 
 - NBER working paper series  no. w23355 .
 - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)  no. w23355. .
<br/><br/> April 2017. 
<br/><br/> The literature has shown the power of social norms to promote residential energy conservation, particularly among high usage users. This study uses a natural field experiment with nearly 200,000 US households to explore whether a financial rewards program can complement such approaches. We observe strong impacts of the program, particularly amongst low-usage and low-variance households, customers who typically are less responsive to normative messaging. Our data thus suggest important policy complementarities between behavioral and financial incentives: whereas non-pecuniary interventions disproportionately affect intense users, financial incentives are able to substantially affect the low-user, "sticky households." 
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