Field | Before | After |
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Field Abstract | Before While increasing attention has focused on behavioral biases as barriers to energy efficiency in developed contexts, little work exists in developing settings. We partner with a major producer of energy efficient, charcoal stoves in Kenya to study how limited attention, product uncertainty, and mental accounting affect the perceptions of energy savings and subsequent technology adoption and usage. We first prompt potential purchasers to exercise greater attention by calculating expected savings from the stove. We then study the relationship between this inattention problem and traditional uncertainty by cross-randomizing whether participants have access to a trial stove for a week before making their purchasing decision. Then, to understand whether households view energy savings through the lens of mental accounting we randomly allocate cash transfers equivalent to the expected savings and test for differences in consumption responses. Finally, we use high-frequency monitors to estimate how cash transfers induce consumption changes in order to benchmark the household’s welfare gains derived from improved energy efficiency. Pilot work is ongoing, and we expect to launch the baseline in Spring 2018. | After See http://www.susannaberkouwer.com/files/theme/BerkouwerJMP.pdf for abstract of Berkouwer & Dean (2022), which presents finding from the 2019 RCT. See the 2022 Pre-Analysis Plan for detail on the 3-year follow up in 2022, focused on health impacts. |
Field Trial End Date | Before December 31, 2019 | After December 31, 2022 |
Field Last Published | Before July 17, 2019 08:59 PM | After March 17, 2022 11:50 AM |
Field Intervention (Public) | Before This pilot, running from October 2017 - July 2018, will consist of randomized household subsidies of energy efficient cookstoves for 200 households residing in Kibera. A randomized, continuous range of subsidies will induce two groups: adopters and non-adopters. Compliance with subsidies is not expected to be perfect, hence subsidies will be used as an instrument for cookstove ownership. Follow-up via SMS with all households will measure energy expenditures post-intervention. A more complex experimental treatment design will be used for the full-size study later in 2018. | After See http://www.susannaberkouwer.com/files/theme/BerkouwerJMP.pdf for details of Berkouwer & Dean (2022), which presents finding from the 2019 RCT. See the 2022 Pre-Analysis Plan for details on the 3-year follow up in 2022, focused on health impacts. |
Field Intervention Start Date | Before October 01, 2017 | After March 01, 2019 |
Field Intervention End Date | Before December 31, 2019 | After December 31, 2022 |
Field Primary Outcomes (End Points) | Before The pilot will primarily focus on the following two outcomes: - WTP for energy efficient cookstoves - Energy expenditures post-intervention The more complex treatment design in 2018 will contain additional outcome variables. | After See http://www.susannaberkouwer.com/files/theme/BerkouwerJMP.pdf for details of Berkouwer & Dean (2022), which presents finding from the 2019 RCT. See the 2022 Pre-Analysis Plan for details on the 3-year follow up in 2022, focused on health impacts. |
Field Primary Outcomes (Explanation) | Before WTP: elicited through a BDM mechanism. Energy expenditures: total household spending on charcoal elicited through follow-up SMS. | After |
Field Experimental Design (Public) | Before During the pilot, we employ a BDM mechanism to elicit household willingness-to-pay for an energy efficient cookstove, and conditional on household willingness-to-pay, randomize cookstove ownership. Our goal is to enrol 200 households (from a sample pool of 300 recruited households) consisting of 100 adopters and 100 non-adopters. Through an SMS survey we then measure recurring charcoal expenditures to experimentally test for any reduction in energy spending for households in the treatment group. In addition to qualitative information the pilot design will generate two quantitative outcomes: 1) A precise demand curve of cookstoves across a dense distribution of price points, and 2) The treatment effect of cookstove ownership on energy expenditures. We first prompt potential purchasers to exercise greater attention by calculating expected savings from the stove. We then study the relationship between this inattention problem and traditional uncertainty by cross-randomizing whether participants have access to a trial stove for a week before making their purchasing decision. Then, to understand whether households view energy savings through the lens of mental accounting we randomly allocate cash transfers equivalent to the expected savings and test for differences in consumption responses. Finally, we use high-frequency monitors to estimate how cash transfers induce consumption changes in order to benchmark the household’s welfare gains derived from improved energy efficiency. | After See http://www.susannaberkouwer.com/files/theme/BerkouwerJMP.pdf for details of Berkouwer & Dean (2022), which presents finding from the 2019 RCT. See the 2022 Pre-Analysis Plan for details on the 3-year follow up in 2022, focused on health impacts. |
Field Planned Number of Clusters | Before N/A | After 1,000 |
Field Planned Number of Observations | Before For the pilot: 200 households. A larger sample will be used for the full study. | After 1,000 |
Field Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms | Before 100 cookstove adopters and 100 non-adopters. | After 500 cookstove adopters and 500 non-adopters. |
Field Additional Keyword(s) | Before Behavioral, Development | After |
Field Keyword(s) | Before Environment And Energy | After Behavior, Environment And Energy, Health |
Field Building on Existing Work | Before | After Yes |
Field | Before | After |
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Field Document | Before |
After
BerkouwerDean_JDEPAP_StovesHealth.pdf
MD5:
02f425465955a421a06a9090a6c5d5f5
SHA1:
f2d6a63c16ea50a3c012b543596264ca93579d7a
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Field | Before | After |
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Field Affiliation | Before Massachusetts Institute of Technology | After University of Chicago |