The D'Amore-McKim Business Sustainability Initiative is pleased to announce a research seminar highlighting work from Mary Steffel, Joseph G. Riesman Research Professor and Associate Professor of Marketing
Every year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spends more than $1.5 billion on utility costs for public housing heating, lighting, and cooling. In an effort to reduce energy consumption, and thus utility costs, the New York City Housing Authority, the Office of Policy Development and Research at HUD and the Office of Evaluation Sciences at the U.S. General Services Administration conducted two randomized controlled trials to examine the efficacy of informational and social-norm-based behavioral interventions at reducing unit-level electricity consumption. These interventions were informed by similar interventions that have proven to be successful in the private sector. We find null effects for both interventions, which suggests that certain non-price behavioral interventions that have proven successful in the private housing sector may not be as effective in the public housing sector.
