Grants

Harvard University

To develop, refine, and promulgate an agenda for energy efficiency research

  • Amount $277,661
  • City Cambridge, MA
  • Investigator Robert Stavins
  • Initiative Behavioral Economics and Household Finance (BEHF)
  • Year 2012
  • Program Research
  • Sub-program Economics

The "Energy Efficiency Paradox" refers to the stubborn fact that energy efficiency improvements judged cost effective in theory nevertheless fail to find wide adoption in practice. Surprisingly few people, for example, weatherize their homes even when given all sorts of information and incentives. Though many researchers have studied aspects of the paradox, no serious, concerted research initiative to understand it has been conducted. This grant supports a project by economists Robert Stavins and Richard Newell to lay the groundwork for such a comprehensive initiative. Stavins and Newell will conduct a review of the relevant economic literature on the Energy Efficiency Paradox, hold a conference, publish a monograph, and provide other scholarly infrastructure, including a shared, online, and annotated bibliographic database of relevant research.

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