Whether replacing a light bulb or buying a car, investing in energy-efficient products can help people to reduce their carbon footprint while saving money. So why do consumers still opt for energy-inefficient goods?

In a new paper in the December issue of the Journal of Economic Literature, co-authors Todd Gerarden,...

Robert Stavins, HEEP Director, Todd Gerarden, HEEP Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and Richard Newell, former HEEP Pre-Doctoral Fellow, co-authored an article published in December 2017 in the Journal of Economic Literature, titled “Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap.” Mr. Gerarden is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Dr. Newell received his Ph.D. in Public Policy in...

HEEP Faculty Fellow, Joseph Aldy, and University of Maryland Professor, Sébastien Houde, co-authored the first HEEP Policy Brief, based on the Discussion Paper, “Belt and Suspenders and More: The Incremental Impact of Energy Efficiency Subsidies in the Presence of Existing Policy Instruments.”

The Harvard Environmental Economics Program—together with the Duke University Energy Initiative—has released a paper titled “Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap.” The “energy-efficiency gap” refers to the apparent phenomenon that energy-efficient technologies, while offering considerable promise for reducing the financial costs and environmental...

Several HEEP affiliates participated in a panel on January 3, 2015, “Explaining the Energy Paradox,” at the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Association (which includes the American Economic Association) in Boston. “Energy paradox” (and the closely related term, “energy-efficiency gap”) refers to the apparent phenomenon that energy-efficient technologies, while offering considerable promise for reducing the financial costs and environmental damages associated with energy use, are not adopted by consumers and businesses to the degree that would seem be justified, even on a purely...

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements—closely affiliated with HEEP— co-hosted an official side-event on energy efficiency at the Twentieth Conference of the Parties (COP-20) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was held in Lima, Peru, in December 2014. The panel was titled “Implications of the Energy-efficiency Gap for Reducing Greenhouse-gas...

HEEP has built an online bibliography of research literature on the "energy-efficiency gap." The "library" is publicly available here:

www.zotero.org/groups/energy_efficiency_gap

The bibliography is one product of an ongoing HEEP research project to better understand the energy-efficiency gap—that is, the apparent gap between the rate of adoption of energy-efficiency technology...

HEEP and the Duke University Energy Initiative (DUEI) co-sponsored, with the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), a workshop on the energy-efficiency gap at ZEW's headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, on March 12-13, 2014. Eighteen economists, almost all based in Europe, actively conducting research on this topic participated. Presentations from the workshop (combined into one PDF file) are available...

The Harvard Environmental Economics Program, along with the Duke University Energy Initiative, hosted a two-day workshop on October 24-25, 2013 at the Harvard Kennedy School titled, "Evaluating the Energy Efficiency Gap." The energy-efficiency gap refers to some energy-efficiency technologies that would apparently be justified based on their private financial net benefits not being adopted at the expected rate. The workshop's goal was to identify potential explanations for this apparent phenomenon. Participants included approximately twenty economists and psychologists conducting research...

This joint initiative between Duke and Harvard University will advance understanding of the "energy efficiency gap" and the diverse factors that affect the adoption of energy-efficient equipment and practices. It focuses on differences between predicted and observed adoption of these technologies. The initiative's findings will inform future research and policy. Learn more here.