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Do Consumers Acquire Information Optimally? Experimental Evidence from Energy Efficiency / Andrea La Nauze, Erica Myers.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- La Nauze, Andrea.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31742.
- NBER working paper series no. w31742
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.
- Summary:
- We use an experiment to test whether consumers optimally acquire information on energy costs in appliance markets where, like many contexts, consumers are poorly informed and make mistakes despite freely-available information. We find consumers acquire information suboptimally; there is little correlation between the revealed utility gain from improved decision making due to information and willingness to pay for information. We compare two behavioral interventions to address consumer mistakes: a conventional subsidy for energy-efficient products and a non-traditional subsidy paying consumers to view information on energy costs. We show that paying for attention can target welfare improvements more effectively.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- September 2023.
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