Moral Suasion and Economic Incentives: Field Experimental Evidence from Energy Demand

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ito, Koichiro; Ida, Takanori; Tanaka, Makoto
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; Kyoto University; National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20160093
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 240-267
• 关键词: electricity demand; prosocial behavior; private provision; public-goods; green; INFORMATION; habituation; strategies; motivation; altruism

摘要

Firms and governments often use moral suasion and economic incentives to influence intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for economic activities. To investigate persistence of such interventions, we randomly assign households to moral suasion and dynamic pricing that stimulate energy conservation during peak-demand hours. We find significant habituation and dishabituation for moral suasion-the treatment effect diminishes after repeated interventions but can be restored to the original level by a sufficient time interval between interventions. Economic incentives induce larger treatment effects, little habituation, and significant habit formation. Our results suggest moral suasion and economic incentives produce substantially different short-run and long-run policy impacts.