Estimating Payback to Residential Energy Efficiency Measures: A Field Experiment

Interest in energy efficiency has grown in recent years as a result of increasing energy prices and greater concern for the externalities generated by fossil fuel combustion. Although energy efficiency measures have the potential to generate win-win situations whereby households gain financial benefits from reduced energy costs and society benefits from the generation of fewer energy consumption related externalities, energy efficiency appears to suffer from underinvestment. One potential explanation for this underinvestment is the lack of information that households and landlords have regarding the savings associated with energy efficiency measures. In this paper we test three types of energy efficiency strategies in an experimental design that utilizes institutionally owned homes that are rented to college students. Using data on actual natural gas consumption during the heating season, our results indicate modest energy savings associated with the installation of attic insulation and the provision of financial incentives for conservation. These results are supported by observations of ambient temperature data, which show that households receiving incentives, on average, reduced the ambient air temperature by 1.5 degrees F.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Development of an Organic Table Grape Production and Market in Switzerland

In Switzerland there is an increasing consumer demand for residue-free, organic table grapes. The organic cultivation of table grapes, however, is very delicate in humid climates and experience to advice organic growers is still lacking. The goal of our project that has started in 2004 is to develop and establish a cultivation system for organic table grapes under Swiss climatic and economic conditions with a high yield security and fulfilling the high quality demands of the market. Preliminary results: Interesting cultivars to produce are e.g. Fanny, Lilla, Palatina. However they are disease susceptible and must be produced under a rain roof. Better suited cultivars still need to be found. Consumer acceptance for organic table grapes produced in Switzerland is very positive. However changes towards new cultivars and lower production costs are necessary. Spray programs to achieve sufficient disease protection and no spray blotch seem to be realizable, mainly for production under rain roof

"Context effects in a negative externality experiment"

This study investigates the degree to which framing and context influence observed rates of free-riding behavior in a negative externality laboratory experiment. Building on the work of Andreoni (1995a) and Messer et al. (2007) we frame the decision not to contribute to a public fund as generating a negative externality on other group members. The experimental treatments involving 252 subjects vary communication, voting, and the status quo of the initial endowment. Results indicate that allowing groups the opportunity to communicate and vote significantly reduces rates of free-riding, and this effect is especially pronounced when initial endowments are placed in the private as opposed to the public fund.Negative externality; voluntary contribution mechanism; cheap talk; voting; status quo bias; experimental economics

Thin and lumpy: an experimental investigation of water quality trading

Water quality trading schemes in the United States can predominantly be characterized by low trading volumes. In this paper we utilize laboratory economics experiments to explore the extent to which the technology through which pollution abatement is achieved influences market outcomes. Mirroring the majority of water quality trading markets, the sessions utilize small trading groups composed of six participants. To understand the extent to which abatement technology influences trading behavior, the experimental treatments vary the degree of heterogeneity in initial abatement costs and the potential for long-lived investments in cost-reducing abatement technology.Environmental Economics and Policy,

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPATIAL DATA IN MODELING ACTUAL ENROLLMENT IN THE CONSERVATION RESERVE ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM (CREP)

This paper uses actual enrollment and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data in six geographically diverse states to demonstrate that enrollment rates in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) are a function of the incentives offered. If aggregate county land use data were used, as has been done previously, incentives appear insignificant.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Beyond Optimal Linear Tax Mechanisms: An Experimental Examination of Damage-Based Ambient Taxes for Nonpoint Polluters

The regulation of nonpoint source water pollution from agriculture is a complex problem characterized by a multiplicity of polluters, informational asymmetries, complex fate and transport processes, and stochastic environmental factors. Taken together, these characteristics make regulatory policy based on individual firm emissions prohibitively costly. To circumvent this issue, economists, beginning with the seminal work of Segerson (1988), have devised economic incentive instruments that assign liabilities based on deviations between the observed ambient water quality level and a specified pollution threshold (Xepapadeas 1991; Horan, Shortle and Abler 1998, 2002; Hansen 1998, 2002). In the special case of a linear damage function, the regulator can optimally set the parameters of Segerson's (1988) incentive scheme solely with information on the damage function. When the damage function is nonlinear, a depiction that likely represents many watersheds, Segerson's incentive scheme is firm-specific, and the regulator must acquire costly firm-specific data on factors such as input use, land management practice, and soil type. Using a linear damage function setting, recent laboratory experimental economics efforts have investigated the ambient-based mechanisms proposed by Segerson, as well as some simple variants (Spraggon 2002, 2004; Poe et al. 2004; Vossler et al. 2005). A fundamental limitaion of this body of research, however, is that has utilized an "optimal design" in which the threshold pollution level for triggering the abient-based policy is set equal to the social optimum. It is therefore unclear whether subjects are optimally responding to the tax and threshold combination, or simply trying to reacting to the focal point created by the threshold. A second limitation of past experimetnal economics research is that, following Segerson, these investigations have utilized the limited case of a linear tax function. While a tax policy is relatively straightforward to apply when damages are linear, the application to real world situations may be limited. A more believable circumstance is that economic damages increase at an increasing rate as ambient pollution levels rise. This paper advances the experimental literature on ambient based pollution mechanisms in two important ways. First, by employing a range of marginal tax rates and threshold levels, we show that subjects do in fact respond optimally to the tax and cutoff combination. Second, by using the damage based tax proposed Hansen (1998) and Horan et al. (1998), we show that aggregate results when the economic damages from ambient water pollution are nonlinear are not significantly different from corresponding results under the linear tax.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Nuclear spin qubits in a trapped-ion quantum computer

Physical systems must fulfill a number of conditions to qualify as useful quantum bits (qubits) for quantum information processing, including ease of manipulation, long decoherence times, and high fidelity readout operations. Since these conditions are hard to satisfy with a single system, it may be necessary to combine different degrees of freedom. Here we discuss a possible system, based on electronic and nuclear spin degrees of freedom in trapped ions. The nuclear spin yields long decoherence times, while the electronic spin, in a magnetic field gradient, provides efficient manipulation, and the optical transitions of the ions assure a selective and efficient initialization and readout.Comment: 7 page