RAPID: The Impact of Stimulus Spending on Energy Efficiency in a Low-Income Dallas Neighborhood: Implications for Science Policy

科学刺激计划的一个重要部分是提高家庭能源效率。然而，这种政策的有效执行需要了解个人和家庭如何对经济激励作出反应。该研究提高了人们对住宅能源效率提高对居民实际能源消耗的影响的认识。如果不了解影响能源消耗的行为因素，决策者可能会低估旨在节约能源的科学政策项目的结果。在了解经济和行为因素对低收入人群利用政府能源项目的影响程度方面，这项研究从多个方面提供了重要的进展。在微观层面上，该研究解决了一些问题，如风险厌恶者是否特别不愿意参与激励计划，可能是因为他们几乎没有减少消费的余地。这项研究还进一步推进了对意外后果影响的科学理解。例如，提高空调系统的效率，可能会减少人们花在门廊或前院的时间，并对社区的团结和安全产生负面影响。同样，提高汽车燃油效率可能会增加驾驶的可能性，从而对健康结果产生负面影响。该研究还可以为项目实施提供科学指导，因为它可以衡量组织信任（并为哪个政府单位应该实施政策提供指导）、个人时间偏好（并为随后报销的前期支出是否比不涉及自付费用的支出更有效提供指导）和社会偏好(家庭是否出于自身利益参与；局部利他主义或大规模利他主义)。该项目建立在现有的国家科学基金会资助的项目基础设施的基础上，该项目收集了德克萨斯州达拉斯低收入社区家庭样本的基线和arra（美国复苏和再投资法案）后的能源使用数据。对于一部分家庭，该研究还包括收集个人层面的偏好指标，这些指标来自经济实验，包括风险、时间和合作偏好，以及对个人和机构的信任指标。这项研究将这些与能源使用的测量相结合，以帮助了解意外后果的来源。这项研究有许多更广泛的影响。它通过在科学政策的评估中增加行为维度，促进了对如何设计由AARA资助的能源效率项目的科学理解。该研究还调查了低收入城市社区居民的行为，并进一步了解了这一未被充分研究的人口群体的偏好。

An important part of the science stimulus is to improve household energy efficiency. However, the effective implementation of such policy requires understanding how individuals and households behave in response to economic incentives. The research advances knowledge about the way improvements in the energy efficiency of residential homes impact the actual consumption of energy by residents. Without knowledge of the behavioral factors that influence energy consumption, policymakers may underestimate the results of science policy programs that are designed to conserve energy. There are multiple ways in which the research provides an important advance in understanding what financial and behavioral factors influence the extent to which low income people take advantage of government energy programs.At the micro level, the research addresses such questions as whether risk-averse individuals are particularly reluctant to participate in incentive programs, possibly because they have few margins on which to reduce their consumption. The research also further advances the scientific understanding of the impact of unintended consequences. For example, increasing the efficiency of air conditioning systems, may reduce the amount of time individuals spend on their porch or in their front yards, and negatively affect neighborhood unity and safety. Similarly, increasing car fuel efficiency may increase the likelihood of driving with consequent negative impacts on health outcomes.The research may also provide scientific guidance for program implementation, in that it can measure organizational trust (and provide guidance about which governmental unit should implement policy), individual time preference (and provide guidance about whether up-front expenditures that are subsequently reimbursed are more effective than expenditures which involve no out-of-pocket expenses) and measures of social preference (whether households participate out of self-interest, local altruism or larger-scale altruism). The project builds on an existing NSF funded project infrastructure that collects baseline and post-ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) energy usage data for a sample of households in a low-income neighborhood of Dallas, TX. For a subset of households, the study also includes collection of individual-level measures of preferences, derived from economic experiments, including risk, time, and cooperative preferences, as well as measures of trust in individuals and institutions. The study combines these with the measures of energy usage to help understand the source of unintended consequences.The research has a number of broader impacts. It advances the scientific understanding of how to design energy efficiency programs funded by AARA by adding a behavioral dimension to the evaluation of science policy. The research also investigates the behavior of residents in a low-income urban neighborhood and advances understanding of the preferences of this understudied demographic segment.