ENBLOC – Enabling energy transition in postsocialist housing cooperatives

Discrete choice experiment - study participants (aged 18-64) living in multi-family buildings will choose between hypothetical solutions aimed at renovation investments. The choice tasks are random and differ in terms of attributes and their levels.

2024-08-18

2024-09-28

Willingness to pay for particular type of renovation activity considering:
(1) type of beneficiary (close neighbours / distant neighbours / local community).
(2) various type of personal engagement (vote through the internet / raising hand on the meeting / discussing the scope of investment).
(3) degree of democratic choice (independent decision of the building manager unanimous decision of citizens/ decision of the majority of citizens).
(4) monthly housing costs after the investment.
(5) real estate price value of the property in 5 years.

Heterogeneity of outcomes in terms of gender, education level, building ownership, income, housing conditions, heating preferences, housing/energy expenditures, beliefs about climate change, ecological attitudes, political and economic beliefs, innovation drive, pro individual/cooperative attitudes.

The survey will consist of three parts. The first part will include closed questions about property ownership, basic information about the building, housing conditions, housing and energy expenditures, and individual residents' attitudes.

The second part will present vignettes with hypothetical renovation possibilities. Each participant will be shown five screens sequentially. Respondents' task will be to choose the most advantageous solution from their perspective from two presented in a random layout.
The list of attributes includes:
(1) type of beneficiary (attribute levels: close neighbours / distant neighbours / local community)
(2) various type of personal engagement (attribute levels: vote through the internet / raising hand on the meeting / discussing the scope of investment)
(3) degree of democratic choice (attribute levels: independent decision of the building manager / unanimous decision of citizens/ decision of the majority of citizens)
(4) monthly housing costs after the investment (attribute levels: {-30%,-20%,-10%, 0, 10%, 20%,30%} )
(5) real estate price value of the property in 5 years (attribute levels: {-30%,-20%,-10%, 0, 10%, 20%, 30%} )

The assumptions of experimental design are as follows:
a) All attribute choices are random: the only condition is that among the two options presented to the respondent, they must differ by at least one attribute level (there cannot be two identical options).
b) The order of attribute display is random.
c) The levels of quantitative attributes (range -30% to 30%, in increments of 10%) are also displayed randomly (with equal probabilities); they may be verified after the quantitative pilot study.
d) we include an additional question about the level of certainty of choices (slider 1-100%) under each vignette.
e) in both surveys (CAPI and CAWI) a respondent will read the experiment instructions (on tablet/computer/mobile phone) and select choices.

The third part will contain closed questions about residents' community attitudes, criteria for investing in energy transition, and socio-demographic information about the respondent and their household.

Not available

Randomization done by a computer system used to prepare the experiment. Each respondent will see five sets of two vignettes with attributes with a randomly selected level (1-3, with equal probabilities). Additionally, in each vignette in a set of five, a random value of cost/benefit will be drawn from a set of {-30%,-20%,-10%, 0, 10%, 20%,30%} (with equal probabilities).

Individual

No

Choices clustered at the level of 4,000 individuals in Poland and 2,000 individuals in Czechia (CAWI) as well as 800 individuals in Poland and 250 individuals in Czechia (CAPI with residents living in three purposefully-selected housing cooperatives)

4,800 in Poland and 2,250 in Czechia = 7,050 in total

There is no division into treatment and control group. At least 7,050 individuals recieve five choice tasks each. The tasks are random as well as the attribute levels.