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A randomized trial of energy cost information provision alongside energy-efficiency classes for refrigerator purchases

Nature Energy volume 7, pages 360–368 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Energy-efficiency classes provide coarse but easy-to-process information designed to help complex decisions. However, they are multi-attribute indices, imprecisely related to the running costs of graded products. Here we evaluate the impact of adding simple but accurate yearly or lifetime energy cost information to the European Union energy label. We conduct a field experiment with an online retailer of energy-using durables, measuring customers’ (n = 126,614) search and purchases of refrigerators. Providing precise energy costs leads to purchasing products with lower prices and in lower energy-efficiency classes, but with similar overall energy and total costs. Furthermore, information provision lengthens product search among buyers, with more attention paid to low energy class products. These results highlight that the use of energy classes involves a trade-off between short-term economic savings and higher search cost. By drawing attention away from energy costs, energy-efficiency classes might not be adequate in the context of a fair and transparent climate transition.

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Fig. 1: Product listing page display for control and treatment groups.
Fig. 2: Distribution of lifetime energy cost and total cost of purchased refrigerators.
Fig. 3: Distribution of lifetime energy cost and total cost of viewed refrigerators.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are proprietary data of the retailer and cannot be shared publicly. To enquire about access to the proprietary data in a synthetic format, please contact G.dA. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The code is available on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/cxnyu/

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at our partner organization for making the project possible. M. Fontana provided outstanding research assistance. We are especially grateful to L. Goette for numerous discussions about this project. H. Allcott, J. Bonan, C. Cattaneo, M. Filippini, N. Gennaioli, M. Greenstone, S. Houde and seminar participants at the 38th International Energy Workshop provided helpful comments and discussions. Financial support from E2e, the European Research Council (ERC) project COBHAM and the EU Horizon H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 821124 (NAVIGATE) is gratefully acknowledged. Y.G.’s research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 71903006). G.dA. gratefully acknowledges support from the Fondazione Pesenti.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Giovanna d’Adda

  2. RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Centro Euromediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Milan, Italy

    Giovanna d’Adda & Massimo Tavoni

  3. Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yu Gao

  4. Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Massimo Tavoni

Authors
  1. Giovanna d’Adda
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  2. Yu Gao
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  3. Massimo Tavoni
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Contributions

G.dA., Y.G. and M.T. conceived and designed the experiment. G.dA. oversaw the implementation of the experiment and analysed the data. G.dA. and Y.G. contributed the analysis tools. G.dA., Y.G. and M.T. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Giovanna d’Adda, Yu Gao or Massimo Tavoni.

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Nature Energy thanks Kenneth Gillingham, Michael Price and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Note 1, Figs. 1–5, Tables 1–35 and references.

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Data underlying Fig. 2.

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Data underlying Fig. 3.

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d’Adda, G., Gao, Y. & Tavoni, M. A randomized trial of energy cost information provision alongside energy-efficiency classes for refrigerator purchases. Nat Energy 7, 360–368 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01002-z

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