Default Effects And Follow-On Behaviour: Evidence From An Electricity Pricing Program

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fowlie, Meredith; Wolfram, Catherine; Baylis, Patrick; Spurlock, C. Anna; Todd-Blick, Annika; Cappers, Peter
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of British Columbia; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdab018
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 2886-2934
• 关键词: health-insurance; MARKETS; CHOICE; preference; ECONOMICS; inertia

摘要

We study default effects in the context of a residential electricity-pricing program. In the large-scale randomized controlled trial we analyse, one treatment group was given the option to opt-in to time-varying pricing while another was defaulted into the program but allowed to opt-out. We provide dramatic evidence of a default effect on program participation, consistent with previous research. A novel feature of our study is that we also observe how the default manipulation impacts customers' subsequent electricity consumption. Passive consumers who did not opt-out but would not have opted in-comprising more than 70% of the sample-nonetheless reduce consumption in response to higher prices. Observing of this follow-on behaviour enables us to assess competing explanations for the default effect. We draw conclusions about the likely welfare effects of defaulting customers onto time-varying pricing.