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Electricity Conservation Campaigns and High Consumption Appliances - A Field Experiment on Feedback, Goal Setting and Incentives
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Imperfect information and inattention can lead consumers to undervalue the energy efficiency of products, contributing to growing environmental problems and climate change. To nudge individuals towards energy efficiency, environmental certification schemes, such as the European Union (EU) energy label, present grade-like efficiency classes. In a real-stakes randomized controlled trial, we contrast this approach with a control condition that gives no energy-related information and an alternative treatment condition that provides detailed information on the lifetime cost of energy-using durables. Our results show that the EU energy label does not increase demand for energy-efficient products over a control condition. By contrast, lifetime-cost information increases the willingness-to-pay for energy efficiency considerably.
Feedback interventions have proven to be effective at promoting energy conservation behaviour, and digital technologies have the potential to make interventions more powerful and scalable. In particular, real-time feedback on a specific, energy-intensive activity may induce considerable behaviour change and savings. Yet, the majority of feedback studies that report large effects are conducted with opt-in samples of individuals who volunteer to participate. Here we show that real-time feedback on resource consumption during showering induces substantial energy conservation in an uninformed sample of guests at six hotels (265 rooms, N = 19,602 observations). The treatment effects are large (11.4%), indicating that the real-time feedback induced substantial energy conservation among participants who did not opt-in, and in a context where participants were not financially responsible for energy costs. We thus provide empirical evidence for real-time feedback as a scalable and cost-efficient policy instrument for fostering resource conservation among the broader public. ----
NOTE: --- We are allowed to publicly share the view-only version of the article, which is available at: https://rdcu.be/bbKNx
Governments across the world are investing in smart metering devices that report energy use to the user with the aim of reducing consumption. However, the effectiveness of such In-Home Displays (IHDs) has been questioned, since savings are small. This is possibly because informing the consumer of their consumption in kWh, or monetary units, fails to give context, or inform of possible actions to reduce consumption. We investigate, for the first time, the effect of replacing the simple statement of energy use an IHD gives, with a detailed array of information specifically designed to improve consumer energy literacy and suggest behaviour change through personalised actionable messages set against a series of psychological value systems for context, and which can identify potential profligacy. The results from a carefully controlled field experiment show: 1) value framing and action prompts have a significant effect on occupants' behaviour, with the mean temperature of homes being reduced from 22.4 °C to 21.7 °C, and a marked reduction in gas consumption—22.0% overall and 27.2% in high consumers; 2) energy literacy increasing from 0.52 to 1.28 (on a 0–4 scale); 3) it is possible to target potentially profligate households, without inappropriately messaging others; 4) engagement is high, with 82% of the participants finding the system useful. These results emphasize the necessity of improving energy literacy when encouraging energy efficient behaviours and point to a new generation of smart meters with the potential to increase energy literacy, make much greater savings and impact climate change policy.
Inattention and imperfect information bias behavior toward the salient and immediately visible. This distortion creates costs for individuals, the organizations in which they work, and society at large. We show that an effective way to overcome this bias is by making the implications of one’s behavior salient in real time, while individuals can directly adapt. In a large-scale field experiment, we gave participants real-time feedback on the resource consumption of a daily, energy-intensive activity (showering). We find that real-time feedback reduced resource consumption for the target behavior by 22%. At the household level, this led to much larger conservation gains in absolute terms than conventional policy interventions that provide aggregate feedback on resource use. High baseline users displayed a larger conservation effect, in line with the notion that real-time feedback helps eliminate “slack” in resource use. The approach is cost effective, is technically applicable to the vast majority of households, and generated savings of 1.2 kWh per day and household, which exceeds the average energy use for lighting. The intervention also shows how digitalization in our everyday lives makes information available that can help individuals overcome salience bias and act more in line with their preferences.
This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.
Policymakers use both extrinsic and intrinsic incentives to induce consumers to change behavior. This paper investigates whether the use of extrinsic financial incentives is complementary to intrinsic incentives, or whether financial incentives undermine the effect of intrinsic incentives. We conduct a randomized controlled trial that uses information interventions to residential electricity customers to test this question. We find that adding economic incentives to normative messages not only does not strengthen the effect of the latter but may reduce it. These results are consistent with recent theoretical work that suggests a tension between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives.
We use choice experiments and randomized information treatments to study the effectiveness of alternative energy efficiency labels in guiding households’ energy efficiency decisions. We disentangle the relative importance of different types of information and distinguish it from intertemporal behavior. We find that insufficient information can lead to considerable undervaluation of energy efficiency. Simple information on the monetary value of energy savings was the most important element guiding cost-efficient energy efficiency investments, with information on physical energy use and carbon dioxide emissions having additional but lesser importance. The degree to which the current US EnergyGuide label guided cost-efficient decisions depends on the discount rate. Using elicited individual discount rates, the current EnergyGuide label came very close to guiding cost-efficient decisions. Using a uniform 5% discount rate, the current label led to one-third undervaluation of energy efficiency. Our results reinforce the centrality of discounting in understanding individual behavior and guiding policy.
The authors summarize 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory. They describe the core findings of the theory, the mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. The external validity and practical significance of goal-setting theory are explained, and new directions in goal-setting research are discussed. The relationships of goal setting to other theories are described as are the theory’s limitations.
Monetary payments, energy information, and daily feedback on consumption were employed to reduce electricity use in four units of a university student housing complex. A combined multiple-baseline and withdrawal design permitted both within- and between-unit comparisons. Payments produced immediate and substantial reductions in consumption in all units, even when the magnitude of the payments was reduced considerably. Feedback also produced reductions, but information about ways to conserve and about the cost of using various appliances did not. It was also found that, in general, payments combined with either information or feedback produced no greater effect than payments alone.
Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), e.g. energy monitors, are intermediary products that can visualize, manage, and/or monitor the energy use of other products or whole households. HEMS increasingly receive attention for their role in energy conservation in households. A literature review and a case study examine the mid-term effectiveness (more than 4 months) of HEMS. The case study presents the results of a 15-month pilot with a domestic energy monitor in the Netherlands. It explores the extent to which participants manage to sustain their initial electricity savings over time, with a special focus on the development of habitual energy-saving behaviour. The results show that the initial savings in electricity consumption of 7.8% after 4 months could not be sustained in the medium- to long-term. A second finding is that certain groups of people seem more receptive to energy-saving interventions than others. These participants quickly develop new habits and exhibit larger savings than other particip
This study investigates the role of information systems in stimulating energy-efficient behavior in private households. We present the example of Velix, a web portal designed to motivate customers of a utility company to reduce their electricity consumption. In particular, we consider the effectiveness of goal setting functionality and defaults in influencing energy conservation behavior. For this purpose, we use the web portal as a test of the theoretical propositions underlying its design. Based on data collected from a field experiment with 1,791 electricity consumers, we test hypotheses regarding the structural relations between defaults and goals, the impact of defaults and goals on consumption behavior, and the moderating role of feedback on goal choice. Our results confirm the positive impact of goal setting on energy conservation. We show that default goals lead to statistically significant savings by affecting goal choice. However, if the default goals are set too low or too high with respect to a self-set goal, the defaults will detrimentally affect behavior. We also show that feedback on goal attainment moderates the effect of default goals on goal choice. The results extend the knowledge on goal setting and defaults and have implications for the design of effective energy feedback systems. The study's approach, which combines hypothesis-driven work and design-oriented IS research, could serve as a blueprint for further research endeavors of this kind, particularly with regard to feedback systems based on future smart metering infrastructures.
This article reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of interventions aiming to encourage households to reduce energy consumption. Thirty-eight studies performed within the field of (applied) social and environmental psychology are reviewed, and categorized as involving either antecedent strategies (i.e. commitment, goal setting, information, modeling) or consequence strategies (i.e. feedback, rewards). Particular attention is given to the following evaluation criteria: (1) to what extent did the intervention result in behavioral changes and/or reductions in energy use, (2) were underlying behavioral determinants examined (e.g. knowledge, attitudes), (3) to what extent could effects be attributed to the interventions and, (4) were effects maintained over longer periods of time? Interestingly, most studies focus on voluntary behavior change, by changing individual knowledge and/or perceptions rather than changing contextual factors (i.e. pay-off structure) which may determine households’ behavioral decisions. Interventions have been employed with varying degrees of success. Information tends to result in higher knowledge levels, but not necessarily in behavioral changes or energy savings. Rewards have effectively encouraged energy conservation, but with rather short-lived effects. Feedback has also proven its merits, in particular when given frequently. Some important issues cloud these conclusions, such as methodological problems. Also, little attention is given to actual environmental impact of energy savings. Often, an intervention's effectiveness is studied without examining underlying psychological determinants of energy use and energy savings. Also, it is not always clear whether effects were maintained over a longer period of time. Recommendations are given to further improve intervention planning and to enhance the effectiveness of interventions.
This experiment investigated the combined use of visual prompts, daily feedback, and rewards to reduce electricity consumption in a university residential hall. After a 17-day baseline period, the experimental intervention was introduced in the intervention hall, and no change was made in the control hall. Energy usage decreased in the intervention hall, but energy usage did not change appreciably in the control hall. In the intervention hall, mean daytime and nighttime savings were 16.2% and 10.7%, respectively, compared to savings of 3.8% (day) and 6.5% (night) in the control hall.
The seminal studies by Allcott and Mullainathan (2010), Allcott (2011), and Allcott and Rogers (2014) show that social comparison-based home energy reports (HER) are a cost-effective climate policy intervention in the US. Our paper demonstrates the context-dependency of this result. In most industrialized countries, average electricity consumption and carbon intensity are well below US levels. Consequently, HER interventions can only become cost-effective if treatment effect sizes are substantially higher. For Germany, we provide evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial that effect sizes are in fact considerably lower than in the US. We conclude by illustrating that targeting highly responsive subgroups is crucial to reach cost-effectiveness and by identifying the few countries in which HER are promising policy instruments.
Increasing evidence indicates the importance of management in determining firms’ productivity. Yet causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of management practices is scarce, especially for skilled labor in the developed world. In a field experiment measuring commercial airline captains’ productivity, we test four distinct management practices: performance monitoring, performance feedback, target setting, and prosocial incentives. These practices—particularly monitoring and target setting—significantly increase captains’ productivity on the targeted fuel-saving dimensions, with positive spillovers on job satisfaction and CO 2 emissions. The study reveals an uncharted research opportunity to delve into the black box of firms to examine the determinants of productivity among skilled labor.
We explore the mechanisms driving the effectiveness of a widely-used behavioral intervention that reduces energy consumption by repeatedly mailing social comparison-based home energy reports (HERs) to households. With a randomized controlled trial, we introduce HERs in a college residence, where tenants do not pay energy bills. Our results indicate that HERs induced almost no behavioral changes for heating demand, with precise estimates that allow us to rule out thermostat changes greater than 0.36 F. This suggests that behavioral channels, such as competitiveness, social norms, or moral suasion, may not motivate conservation in the absence of direct monetary incentives. Acessible at: https://e2e.haas.berkeley.edu/pdf/workingpapers/WP041.pdf
We evaluate a large-scale field deployment in which close to 7,000 households subject to time-of-using electricity pricing were provided with an in-home display that provides real-time feedback on electricity consumption and price. We find that receipt of the device results in a reduction in average electricity consumption of about 3%, with this effect roughly constant across hours of the day. We find evidence that households respond to this information in part by forming habits rather than adjusting their load-shifting behavior. We also find that real-time information has an ambiguous effect on household responsiveness to electricity prices, counter to existing literature where information increases responsiveness to price.
There is increasing research on the exogenous impact of descriptive social norms on economic behavior. The research to date has a number of limitations: 1) it has not de-coupled the impact of the norm and the knowledge required to understand how to change behavior based upon it; 2) it has exclusively used offline but not online (i.e. emails) methods; and 3) it has not understood the impact of financial incentives in conjunction with norms. We address these three limitations using two natural field experiments. We find, firstly, that norms change energy behavior over a 15 month treatment period irrespective of whether information is provided or not. We find that social norms reduce consumption by around 6% (0.2 standard deviations). Norms have has their largest impact on the day that information on the social norm is received, and then decreases over time. Secondly, we do not find that social norms work online (even with experienced consumers who are used to online billing) - social norms de- livered online may have very little beneficial effects on reducing energy use. Thirdly, we find that large financial rewards work very well online in reducing consumption, with a 0.35 change in energy consumption over a four month period. Perhaps most interestingly, we find that the large effect of financial incentives is completely removed when information on social norms is added online.
This paper provides field evidence from India examining changes in electricity consumption in response to various behavioral interventions. I study the impact of (i) Weekly reports with peer comparisons of electricity use; (ii) Reports augmented with monetary incentives to reduce consumption and (iii) Price variation. I estimate consumption changes using a randomized control trial in conjunction with a quasi-experiment. Households provided reports alone reduced summer season consumption by 7 percent. Price elasticity identified from cross-sectional and time series variation was estimated at -0.56. Against this benchmark, the impact of peer comparisons alone was equivalent to increasing tariffs by about 12.5 percent. Counter-intuitively, when weekly reports were augmented with monetary incentives rewarding electricity conservation, households no longer reduced consumption. Households receiving reports also show higher price elasticity relative to controls. These results provide new evidence identifying the response of developing country consumers to behavioral interventions while examining the interaction of prices, incentives and information.
What effect do financial incentive interventions have on initial and sustained proenvironmental behavior, how do different types of incentives (e.g., cash, transit tickets) affect proenvironmental behavior, and how does the effect of incentive interventions vary across different types of behaviors (e.g., recycling, travel behavior)? A meta-analysis of 22 studies (k = 30) addressed these questions. Incentive interventions had a small-to-medium effect on behavior while incentives were in place (d+ = 0.36) and after they were discontinued (d+ = 0.41). Moreover, certain financial incentives features tended to be more effective at changing behavior, such as incentives distributed on variable schedules as compared to fixed schedules. Finally, financial incentive types were more effective at changing specific proenvironmental behaviors; cash incentives had a stronger effect on recycling and non-cash incentives had a stronger effect on travel behavior. These findings suggest that financial incentives can change proenvironmental behavior, can contribute to sustained behavior, and are particularly effective in certain contexts.
Purpose
The majority of research on energy feedback has been conducted in residential households; in this study, the authors aim to examine the effectiveness of similar initiatives in a college environment. The our goal was to see how much additional electricity savings could be induced using feedback beyond average savings achieved by goal-setting and to provide students information on how to conserve.
Design/methodology/approach
All participants set goals related to personal environmental behavior and received electricity-saving tips. Half of the participants were exposed to real-time, group-level, ambient and direct feedback of electric use for their dormitory floor through an iPad display. The control group received no feedback.
Findings
The group that received the real-time feedback reduced its consumption, whereas the control group did not. The feedback group’s change in consumption was significantly greater than the control group’s. The results are discussed in the context of injunctive norms, reminders, ambient feedback and numerical feedback, as well as the theory of planned behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Further research could test for long-term effects, whether the interventions applied in this study would be effective in other university contexts and whether the interventions would influence other environmental habits apart from electricity consumption on campuses.
Originality/value
This is one of the first energy feedback studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of group-level data, let alone specifically in a college dormitory and has implications for influencing conservation behavior of residential college students worldwide.
Purpose
The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of a competition-based intervention combining high resolution electricity feedback, incentives, information, and prompts on college dormitory residents’ energy consumption and participation in demand response (DR) events. We also investigated changes in individual-level pro-environmental behaviors and examined psychosocial correlates of behavior change.
Design/methodology/approach
Residents of 39 suites in a freshman residence hall competed against one another to reduce energy consumption and win prizes as part of a 3-week competition. Feedback was provided in near real-time at the suite-level via an interactive touch-screen kiosk. Participants also completed baseline and follow-up surveys.
Findings
Electricity use among all suites was approximately 6.4% lower during the competition period compared to baseline, a significant reduction. Additionally, participants reported engaging in various pro-environmental behaviors significantly more frequently during the competition relative to baseline. Changes in pro-environmental behavior were associated with changes in level of group identification and perceived social norms.
Practical implications
In three weeks, dormitory residents saved 3, 158 kWh of electricity compared to baseline – the equivalent of more than 3, 470 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Our findings provide evidence that real-time feedback, combined with incentives, information, and prompts, can motivate on-campus residents to reduce energy consumption.
Originality/value
We contribute to a limited body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of dorm energy competitions in motivating college students to save energy. In addition, we identified individual-level behavioral and psychosocial changes made during such an intervention. University residential life planners may also use the results of this research to inform student programming.
This study examines the factors that influence households to adopt modifications recommended by home energy audits and whether these audits lead to significant reductions in electricity use. Household decisions after the audits are recorded along with the corresponding recommended modifications and the offers for co-funding. A discrete choice model of the household decision after the audit is estimated. The results indicate that the potential improvement in heating efficiency from the proposed modifications increase the probability of implementing conservation measures. Co-funding offers also significantly raise the odds of accepting the modifications but are relatively less important than anticipated efficiency improvements. Several approaches are used to determine whether and how much energy is saved after the audits. Electricity demand models are estimated using data two years before and after each household audit. For households who decide to modify their houses after the audit, monthly average electricity use per square foot decreases 7%. While there is an estimated 2% reduction in electricity use attributed to the audit by households who decided not to adopt the proposed modifications, this reduction is not statistically significant, casting doubt on the presence of modifications in behavior from the audit information itself. For all households audited, the results from the electricity demand models suggest that the LVE home energy audit program reduced household electricity use 4.7%. In contrast, a differences-in-differences approach using synthetic control groups based upon a smaller but still sizeable sample of 2,000 observations finds that home energy audits reduce household electricity use by more than 10 percent. Overall, these findings suggest that home audits result in modest but significant reductions in energy use.
Real-time information feedback delivered via technology has been reported to produce up to 20 percent declines in residential energy consumption. There are however large differences in estimates of the effect of real-time feedback technologies on energy use. In this study, we conduct a field experiment to obtain an estimate of the impact of a real-time feedback technology. Access to feedback leads to an average reduction in household electricity consumption of 5.7 percent. Significant declines persist for up to four weeks. In examining time of day reduction effects, we find that the largest reductions were observed initially at all times of the day but as time passes, morning and evening intervals show larger reductions. We find no convincing evidence that household characteristics explain heterogeneity in our treatment effects; we examine demographics, housing characteristics and psychological variables.
The international rollout of residential smart meters has increased considerably in recent years. The improved consumption feedback provided, and in particular, the installation of in-house displays, has been shown to significantly reduce residential electricity demand in some international trials. This paper attempts to uncover the underlying drivers of such information-led reductions by exploring two research questions. First, does feedback improve a household’s stock of information about potential energy reducing behaviours? And second, do improvements in such information help explain the demand reductions associated with the introduction of smart metering and time-of-use tariffs? Data is from a randomised controlled smart metering trial (Ireland) which also collected extensive information on household attitudes towards energy conservation and self-reported stocks of information related to energy saving. As with previous results in Ireland, we find that participation in a smart metering programme with time-of-use tariffs significantly reduces demand. Although treated households also increased their self-reported energy-reducing information, such improvements are not correlated with demand reductions. Given this result, it is possible that feedback and other information provided in the context of smart metering is mainly effective in reducing and shifting demand because it acts as a reminder and motivator.
This paper develops a theoretical model of consumer demand for an energy conservation program that involves non-binding, self-set goals. We present evidence from a Northern Illinois goal-setting program, aimed at reducing residential electricity consumption, that is difficult to reconcile with standard preferences and is broadly consistent with a model of presentbiased consumers with reference-dependent preferences. We find that the need for commitment is correlated with program adoption, higher pre-adoption consumption, and lower responsiveness to goals. Consumers choosing realistic goals persistently save substantially more, achieving savings of nearly 11%, than those choosing very low or unrealistically high goals.
Interventions to affect repeated behaviors, such as smoking, exercise, or workplace effort, can often have large short-run impacts but uncertain or disappointing long-run effects. We study one part of a large program designed to induce energy conservation, in which home energy reports containing personalized feedback, social comparisons, and energy conservation information are being repeatedly mailed to more than five million households across the United States. We show that treatment group households reduce electricity use within days of receiving each of their initial few reports, but these immediate responses decay rapidly in the months between reports. As more reports are delivered, the average treatment effect grows but the high-frequency pattern of action and backsliding attenuates. When a randomly-selected group of households has reports discontinued after two years, the effects are much more persistent than they had been between the initial reports, implying that households have formed a new "capital stock" of physical capital or consumption habits. We show how assumptions about long-run persistence can be important enough to change program adoption decisions, and we illustrate how program design that accounts for the capital stock formation process can significantly improve cost effectiveness.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
An energy conservation contest among four groups of apartments (44 to 70 units each) in a University of Colorado family housing complex was conducted February-April, 1977. The winning group in each of six 2-week contests won $80 to use however it determined. The program produced a drop of about 10% in use of natural gas during the first contest; energy savings were smaller but still statistically significant throughout the first 8 weeks. Over a 12-week period, savings averaged 6.6%. Some changes in energy-using behaviors were reported by residents surveyed at the contest's end; however, knowledge of contest results by residents was minimal. The results are compared to those of other contest and rebate programs, the practical problems of costs exceeding savings and inaccurate estimates of energy savings are discussed, and implications for future research are suggested.
The relative effectiveness of incentive and minimal justification techniques in promoting electrical energy conservation among 90 homeowners was investigated. Subjects in the Questionnaire condition were asked to complete a short energy conservation survey. Those in the Commitment condition were asked to curtail their consumption of electricity by 15%. In the Questionnaire + Commitment condition, subjects received both requests. These three groups were compared to an Incentive condition, where individuals were offered a highly attractive monetary incentive for conserving electricity, a Questionnaire + Commitment + Incentive condition, and a Control condition. The groups did not differ in electricity consumption during baseline, initial request, or follow-up periods. However, during the conservation period, homeowners in the Commitment and the combined treatment groups conserved more electricity and contained more conservers than either of the remaining groups. These outcomes were discussed in terms of the comparative effectiveness of minimal justification and incentive strategies for inducing behavioral change.
The purpose of this study was to find a means to increase energy conservation behavior by giving consumers immediate energy feedback. The study explored the roles of goals to save energy and kW h feedback. Feedback was given, and conservation goals set, via a simulated, technologically advanced, washing machine control panel. One hundred subjects each completed 20 simulated washing trials. Self-set and assigned goals were compared as to their effect on conservation behavior when used in combination with energy feedback. Both generated similar energy savings with the self-set goal group using 21% less energy than the control group. Social orientation, a personality factor, was found to interact with goal-setting mode, with pro-self individuals saving more energy when allowed to self-set a goal and pro-social individuals saving more energy when assigned a goal.
“Nudges” are being widely promoted to encourage energy conservation. We show that while the electricity conservation “nudge” of providing feedback to households on own and peers’ home electricity usage works with liberals, it can backfire with conservatives. Our regression estimates predict that a Democratic household that pays for electricity from renewable sources, that donates to environmental groups, and that lives in a liberal neighborhood reduces its consumption by 3 percent in response to this nudge. A Republican household that does not pay for electricity from renewable sources and that does not donate to environmental groups increases its consumption by 1 percent.
This paper evaluates a pilot program run by a company called OPOWER, previously known as Positive Energy, to mail home energy reports to residential utility consumers. The reports compare a household’s energy use to that of its neighbors and provide energy conservation tips. Using data from randomized natural field experiment at 80,000 treatment and control households in Minnesota, I estimate that the monthly program reduces energy consumption by 1.9 to 2.0 percent relative to baseline. In a treatment arm receiving reports each quarter, the effects decay in the months between letters and again increase upon receipt of the next letter. This suggests either that the energy conservation information is not useful across seasons or, perhaps more interestingly, that consumers’ motivation or attention is malleable and non-durable. I show that “profiling,” or using a statistical decision rule to target the program at households whose observable characteristics suggest larger treatment effects, could substantially improve cost effectiveness in future programs. The effects of this program provide additional evidence that non-price “nudges” can substantially affect consumer behavior.
In his seminal 1970 book, The Gift Relationship, Richard Titmuss argued that monetary compensation for donating blood might crowd out the supply of blood donors. To test this claim we carried out a field experiment with three different treatments. In the first treatment subjects were given the opportunity to become blood donors without any compensation. In the second treatment subjects received a payment of SEK 50 (about $7) for becoming blood donors, and in the third treatment subjects could choose between a SEK 50 payment and donating SEK 50 to charity. The results differ markedly between men and women. For men the supply of blood donors is not significantly different among the three experimental groups. For women there is a significant crowding-out effect. The supply of blood donors decreases by almost half when a monetary payment is introduced. There is also a significant effect of allowing individuals to donate the payment to charity, and this effect fully counteracts the crowding-out effect. (JEL: C93, D64, I18, Z13) (c) 2008 by the European Economic Association.
- S Z Attari