Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: The Alignment Effect of Auditing
Author-Name:  Johannes Gessner
Author-Email: jgessner@mail.uni-mannheim.de
Author-Name: Andreas Gerster
Author-Name: Michael Kramm
Classification-JEL: C93, D83, Q41, Q48
Keywords: information provision, nudge, welfare, heterogeneity, incentivized survey experiment, energy efficiency


Abstract: There is growing evidence that households often forgo profitable energy efficiency retrofits, partly due to
inattention and imperfect information about their economic benefits. We conduct an incentivized survey
experiment to evaluate both the effecƟveness and the welfare implicaƟons of a widely used policy tool aimed
at addressing this issue: providing information from an energy efficiency audit. In our incentivized experiment,
participants in the treatment group receive personalized information about the potential cost savings from
retrofitting their heating systems, while those in the control group do not receive such information. Our
results show that providing this information does not increase the average willingness to pay for a retrofit.
  
Note: 
Length: 38
Creation-Date: 2025-08
Revision-Date:
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp696
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2025_696