Information programs for technology adoption: The case of energy-efficiency audits

By Sören Anderson, Richard G. Newell. 2004

535 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We analyze technology adoption decisions of manufacturers in response to energy audits provided by Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Centers. Using fixed effects logit estimation to control for unobserved plant characteristics, we find that plants respond as expected to financial costs and benefits, though there are unmeasured project-related factors that also influence investment decisions. Revealed behavior of plants suggests that most require a payback of 15 months or less as their investment threshold, corresponding to an 80% or greater hurdle rate. This is consistent with survey results for stated investment thresholds, suggesting that these programs do not lower hurdle rates, as some suggest. Plants reject about half of recommended projects; the primary rationale given is their economic undesirability, as opposed to remaining market or organizational barriers. This raises concerns regarding engineering-economic estimates of the degree to which there are feasible no-net-cost opportunities for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7e38017d85bb8ec910feddca622fa55f608ae6a9

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Citations in the corpus

Modern Management: Good for the Environment or just Hot Air? (2010, unknown): “(2000) and Anderson and Newell (2004). 552 [ M A Y T H E E C O N O M I C J O U R N A L”
The empirical analysis of the determinants for environmental technological change: A research agenda (2009, background): “ Anderson and Newell (2003) (adoption of energy-efficient”
Barriers to increasing energy efficiency: evidence from small-and medium-sized enterprises in China (2013, result): “This finding confirms previous studies that found the shortage of skilled labour to be a key bottleneck for energy saving activities in SMEs in manufacturing firms in the US (Anderson and Newell, 2004).”
A framework to characterize energy efficiency measures (2014, methodology): “41 55 M St an da rd iz e m ot or in ve n to ry [5 7] S L E N /A N /A P N /A N /A N /A E P D ep * M L C /D P N /A [5 4, 59 ]”
Reducing energy demand: A review of issues, challenges and approaches (2015, background): “The impact of these policies is hard to assess, but several studies indicate that they can be cost-effective [59,60].”
Energy, the Environment, and Technological Change (2009, background): “Anderson and Newell (2004) examine the role of information by asking how firms respond to energy audits offered through the US Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC).”
The characteristics of energy-efficiency measures – a neglected dimension (2012, background): “High initial expenditures are frequently mentioned as a barrier to the adoption of EEMs (Anderson, Newell 2004) because of restricted access to internal and external capital.”
Nudging Energy Efficiency Behavior: The Role of Information Labels (2014, unknown): “(2002), Anderson et al. (2008) consider the joint elicitation of risk and time preferences.”
Chapter 5 – Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap? (2012, unknown): “For example, Anderson and Newell (2004) analyze energy audits that the U.S. Department of Energy provides for free to small- and medium-sized enterprises.”
Adoption of energy-efficiency measures in SMEs—An empirical analysis based on energy audit data from Germany (2012, methodology): “Anderson and Newell (2004) rely on a large panel of around 40,000 EEMs recommended in more than 9,000 manufacturing plants participating in an energy audit program administered by the US Department of Energy‟s Industrial Assessment Centers (US IAC).”
Internal and external barriers to energy efficiency: which role for policy interventions? (2019, background): “Anderson and Newell (2004) confirm that firms fail to undertake profitable investments recommended after an energy audit because of risks, along with information barriers.”