Using Information to Improve the Effectiveness of Nonlinear Pricing: Evidence from a Field Experiment.

摘要

The paper reports on the results of two field experiments that examine the impact of providing current information on a household's electricity consuming actions on how that household responds to a nonlinear retail price schedule for electricity. Over 2,000 households participated in a customized on-line interactive educational program that taught them how their monthly electricity bill was determined from nonlinear retail pricing scheme they face. each household was also told where their typical consumption monthly paces it on this nonlinear pricing schedule. Households were also shown how changes in their major electricity-consuming activities would affect their monthly bill under the nonlinerar pricing scheme. Using data from before and after this intervention for households that tool the education program (our treatment) and a randsomly selected set of control households who did not take our treatment, we applied a standard average treatment effects estimation procedure to assess the impact of the information invention on a household's monthly electricity consumption. For both utilities, the authors find that households that learn they face a high marginal price for consuming electricity reduce their electricity consumption relative to the control group. The authors also find that households that learn they face a low marginal price increase their electricity consumption relative to the control group. These results emphasize that the need to provide timely and actionable information to households in order to maximize the effectiveness of nonlinear retail pricing schemes.