@article{Brent:149697,
      recid = {149697},
      author = {Brent,   Daniel A. and Cook,   Joseph H. and Olsen,    Skylar},
      title = {Heterogeneous Responses to Social Norms for Water  Conservation},
      address = {2013-05},
      pages = {24},
      year = {2013},
      abstract = {Utilizing social norms is gaining momentum as a  cost-effective mechanism to promote sustainable behavior.  We analyze household water data from multiple pilot  programs for a
company that provides information campaigns  containing social comparisons of water use and personalized  conservation recommendations in order to reduce household  water consumption. We find significant treatment effect  heterogeneity across the distribution of consumption and  environmental
attitudes. In the two pilots with a full year  of data one utility achieves savings of 6.5%; while  the
other in aggregate achieved limited conservation gains.  Heterogeneity based on the distribution of
consumption is  more important in the utility with significant savings,  with the highest users saving
the most water. In contrast  ideology appears to be more important in the utility with  an insignificant average treatment effect with dis-savings  for those with very low environmental preferences
and  strong savings for the most environmentally-conscious.  Inter-regional ideology may play an
critical role since the  utility with significant savings is in a much "greener"  community, whereas
intra-utility ideology is influential in  conservative areas. We caution interpretation of the  results,
particularly for Utility B, as the data are still  incomplete.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/149697},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.149697},
}