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At the international climate summit in Paris in 2015, the community of nations committed to limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. Non-state actors such as municipalities are expected to contribute to achieving this goal. However, the environmental economics literature has barely studies the potential of non-state actors to act as leaders by example for citizens with regard to climate protection activities. For example, the city of Grenoble (France) has been named European Green Capital 2022 by the European Commission in recognition of its achievements in urban sustainability. Among others, the city of Grenoble has already reduced its GHG emissions by 49% since 2005 thanks to an ambitious energy policy aimed at reducing building and public lighting energy use and renewing and reducing its vehicle fleet. With our experimental study, we contribute to the understanding of the role of non-state actors. Specifically, we examine identities and leadership of the City of Grenoble and the impact on the willingness to contribute to climate protection by citizens.

Smart thermostats may provide up to 10% savings in residential thermal energy use without loss of comfort, yet their diffusion has typically been slow. To better understand adoption of these devices, we conducted an online survey with approximately 5,500 respondents from eight European countries that included both a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and stated past adoption of smart thermostats. The results we obtained by estimating mixed logit models suggest that households value heating cost savings, remote temperature control, the display of changes in energy consumption, and recommendations by experts, albeit with substantial heterogeneity across countries; in comparison, subsidies are positively valued in all countries except for Germany and Spain, and recommendations by energy providers in all countries except Poland where they are negatively valued. Further, the findings provide evidence that consumer innovativeness reinforces the acceptance of technical attributes (heating cost savings, feedback functionalities, and remote temperature control), that privacy concerns reduce the acceptance of remote functionalities, and that stronger environmental identity reinforces the acceptance of environmentally related attributes (heating cost savings and feedback functionalities). The results we obtained from estimating binary response models of stated past adoption of smart thermostats are generally consistent with those of the DCE.

The European Union has decided to replace its previously existing A+++ to D labelling scheme for cold appliances with a rescaled A to G labelling scheme in 2021. Employing a demographically representative discrete choice experiment on refrigerator adoption using an online survey among more than 1000 households in Germany, this paper explores the effects of the rescaled scheme compared to the previous scheme on the stated uptake of top-rated refrigerators, i.e. those classified A+++ under the previous scheme and B under the rescaled scheme. Since in practice both schemes may be shown for a transitory period, the paper also explores the effects of displaying both labels simultaneously. The findings from estimating a mixed logit model suggest that showing the rescaled label alone significantly increases valuation of top-rated refrigerators compared to showing the previous A+++ to D label alone. In comparison, when the previous A+++ to D and the rescaled A to G schemes are shown simultaneously, no benefits of introducing the rescaled label are found. Thus, policymakers should strive to enforce the application of the rescaled labelling scheme as quickly as possible and to shorten transitory periods where both labels are shown simultaneously.

This paper analyzes how people’s individual characteristics are associated with economic preferences, in particular risk aversion, loss aversion, time discounting, and present bias. To this end, we conduct a large-scale demographically representative survey across eight EU countries. We elicit preferences using incentivized multiple price lists and include a rich set of individual characteristics. Preferences and their covariates are estimated jointly to avoid bias from neglecting structural dependencies of different preference parameters. We find that preferences are linked to a variety of individual characteristics such as age, gender, and income as well as some personal values. We also report robust evidence pertaining to the relationship between cognitive ability and preferences. Incentivization, stake size, and the order of presentation of binary choices matter, underlining the importance of controlling for these factors when eliciting economic preferences.

This paper employs identical demographically representative discrete choice experiments (DCEs) on new heating systems with owner-occupier households in Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (UK) to estimate respondent will-ingness-to-pay (WTP) for rebates, heating cost savings, installation time (re-flecting "hassle costs") and warranty length. The results from estimating coun-try-specific mixed logit models suggest that participants generally value rebates for new heating systems, but valuation differs substantially across countries and was found to be highest for Poland. For Sweden (but not for Poland or the UK), rebates appeared more effective if offered by a public rather than a private fund-ing source. Because higher income households in the UK value rebates more than lower income households, rebates may be regressive. The results for heat-ing cost savings in the three countries imply static payback times of ten to fif-teen years for more energy-efficient heating systems. We further find that re-spondents have a strong dislike for longer installation time and a high WTP for longer warranty times.

Conveyance, i.e., the fact that an appliance purchased will be left in the dwelling when moving out, may lead homeowners to purchase appliances of lower quality or performance, because the extra costs are not entirely capitalized into the house sales price. Employing a discrete choice experiment with homeown-ers in the United States, this paper explores the effects of conveyance on homeowners' willingness-to-pay for various attributes of refrigerators. To ac-count for the social nature of purchases when conveyance is likely to occur, it also tests the moderating role of envy (elicited through an incentivized game). The findings suggest that conveyors are more likely to purchase a smaller re-frigerator, from a less well-known brand, and with lower customer ratings. In contrast, conveyance was not found to affect homeowners' choices when it comes to energy cost. In addition, envy was found to generally reinforce the negative effects of conveyance on homeowners' willingness-to-pay for quality and performance attributes. While conveyance and its interaction with envy help explain homeowners' choice of quality/performance attributes of applianc-es, these factors do not appear to explain the energy efficiency paradox.

This paper empirically and jointly analyses the relations between risk aversion, standard time discounting, present bias, and loss aversion and household stated adoption of low to high stake energy efficiency technologies (EETs) (light emitting diodes (LEDs), energy efficient appliances, and retrofit measures). The analysis relies on a large representative sample drawn from eight European Union countries. Preferences over time, risk and losses were elicited and jointly estimated from participant choices in incentivized, context-free multiple price list experiments. The findings from econometrically estimating EET adoption equations suggest that present-biased individuals are less likely to adopt EETs. They also provide (weak) evidence that individuals which are more risk-averse, or more loss-averse, or which exhibit a lower discount factor are less likely to adopt EETs. Finally, omitting one or several of the time and risk or loss-aversion parameters when estimating the EET adoption equations did not appear to cause omitted variable bias.

Using a representative sample of more than 11,000 households from eight Eu-ropean countries, this paper empirically studies the factors related to household electricity contract switching by distinguishing between households that switched contracts but stayed with the same supplier (internal switching) from those that switched to a new supplier (external switching). The econometric analysis includes a wide range of individual preferences, structural factors, and socio-demographic characteristics; in particular, it is the first paper to explicitly explore the role of time and risk preferences on switching behaviors. The main results suggest that internal and external switching are not related to the same factors, that risk and time preferences affect switching behaviors, and that renters are less likely to switch than homeowners.