Cash for Coolers

This paper examines a large-scale appliance replacement program in Mexico that since 2009 has helped one million households replace their old refrigerators and air-conditioners with energy-efficient models. Using household-level electric billing records from the population of Mexican residential customers we measure the impact of appliance replacement on electricity consumption, and describe how savings vary across households by type and age of appliance. Observed electricity savings tend to be smaller than ex ante predictions from the World Bank. We present evidence supporting a couple of different explanations which point to the importance of incorporating behavior into models of energy demand.

Speaker: Lucas Davis, UC Berkeley