The Impact of Outreach to Local Governments and Media in Addressing the Energy Crisis in the United Kingdom

Last registered on March 29, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Outreach to Local Governments and Media in Addressing the Energy Crisis in the United Kingdom
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010308
Initial registration date
October 25, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 31, 2022, 3:43 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
March 29, 2023, 9:34 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Warwick

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Warwick
PI Affiliation
University of Wariwck

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-10-25
End date
2026-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
An estimated 3.5 million households in England live in fuel poverty and/or council homes rated low in terms of energy efficiency performance. Now, these households are being hit by extremely high energy costs due to skyrocketing energy prices. We estimate that the UK could easily reduce its energy consumption in the residential sector by 30%, saving households at least GBP 11 billion per year in fuel bills, without lowering their standard of living. Central government interventions, though, taking the shape of an Energy Price Guarantee threaten to weaken incentives of households to become more aware of the large potential savings that can be realized if properties are upgraded. At present, we believe that a lack of awareness of how much money could be saved by insulating properties in the UK, is undermining both individual, but also local and national political action in that domain. Still, local governments have the right tools to enable actions that could save UK households millions of pounds, as local councils decide on planning permits including for home insulations. Thus, we will provide localized information about energy burden and energy savings potential at the local authority level to district officials, council members, and media. With our bottom-up approach, we believe that our project is well-positioned to influence local governments into adopting such measures to facility energy savings.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bishop, Menna, Thiemo Fetzer and Ludovica Gazze. 2023. "The Impact of Outreach to Local Governments and Media in Addressing the Energy Crisis in the United Kingdom." AEA RCT Registry. March 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10308-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-10-25
Intervention End Date
2022-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcomes are 1) indicators for whether the energy crisis and energy efficiency measures are discussed in city councils and 2) the extent of discussion and measures taken as measured by permits and budget spending and all other sources mentioned above pending availability. We will also measure 3) the volume and sentiments of Tweets by treated vs. control councils and media outlets and their followers.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
See attached PAP
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The unit of analysis for the RCT will be a local authority and specifically, local politicians and council representatives. Which council is included in the study is determined using (stratified) random selection. This allows us to study whether our targeted outreach campaign is effective in causing changes in outcomes. Using councils as unit of analysis is natural as they are the prime meaningful subnational economic and political units at which e.g. planning applications are processed and initiatives for energy savings can be scaled up.
As part of our randomized evaluation, we will ensure that each council in our sample is assigned to one of two roughly equal-sized experimental groups – Treatment (outreach) or Control (no further outreach).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer using STATA.
Randomization Unit
LAD
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Not clustered
Sample size: planned number of observations
329 LADs
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
165 LADs in treatment, 164 LADs in control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Warwick Humanities & Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-21
IRB Approval Number
HSSREC 34/22-23
Analysis Plan

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