Energy efficiency and heating technology investments: Manipulating financial information in a discrete choice experiment *

摘要

We elicit homeowners & rsquo; willingness to pay (WTP) for energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies in the context of heating appliance replacement. We employ a within-between subject design that involves manipulating information in a two-stage discrete choice experiment (DCE) and use WTP space estimation to identify the role of financial information in reducing fossil fuel use. We find that homeowners & rsquo; average valuation of energy efficiency exceeds associated heating cost savings, suggesting that they also consider non-monetary benefits when evaluating this type of investment, whereas information about private and pro-social benefits of investments only has a limited impact on WTP. Evidence also suggests that homeowners have a strong preference for the existing technology. Consequently, fossil fuel users & rsquo; WTP for switching to low-carbon technologies does not cover respective investment cost differentials, and we derive evidence on how combined subsidies and information can induce these users to opt out of fossil technologies.