Résultat de la recherche
Diffusion of solar photovoltaic energy : an economic and behavioral perspective
La transition vers une économie plus verte requière une utilisation accrue des sources d’énergie renouvelables. L’énergie solaire est prometteuse mais s’accompagne de nombreux défis, dont deux sont abordés dans cette thèse. Tout d’abord, comment favoriser le déploiement de la technologie photovoltaïque (PV) ? Deuxièmement, comment faire face à sa production d’électricité intermittente ?
Les trois premiers chapitres étudient empiriquement l’impact de la contagion sociale sur l’adoption du PV solaire en Suisse. Différentes approches sont utilisées dans le même but: identifier les mécanismes microéconomiques et comportementaux qui sous-tendent le phénomène de contagion. En utilisant des données géo-référencées et en exploitant certaines spécificités suisses, nous sommes en mesure de déterminer le rôle des effets de visibilité et d’apprentissage. En d’autres termes, nous démontrons que les gens sont plus enclins à installer des panneaux solaires s’ils voient leurs voisins le faire et s’ils peuvent bénéficier de leur expérience. Le dernier chapitre traite de l’inadéquation temporelle entre l’offre et la demande d’électricité. À l’aide d’une expérience de terrain, nous examinons la possibilité de modifier le comportement de consommation des ménages pour permettre l’intégration d’une plus grande part d’énergie solaire variable.
Une implication importante de nos résultats est que les estimations existantes pourraient sous-estimer la performance des subventions. Pour une évaluation complète, il conviendrait de prendre en compte le cercle vertueux généré par la contagion sociale. Dans l’ensemble, les résultats présentés dans cette thèse appellent à concevoir des politiques innovantes. Par exemple, des mesures favorisant l’établissement de normes sociales pro-environnementales au niveau local et facilitant l’échange d’informations entre propriétaires d’installations PV et adoptants potentiels pourraient s’avérer peu coûteuses et efficaces pour stimuler l’adoption. Encourager les ménages à déplacer leur consommation vers les heures ensoleillées en modifiant le prix de l’électricité pourrait aussi lever l’un des obstacles à la diffusion à grande échelle du PV.
ABSTRACT :
The transition towards a greener economy requires a steady rise in the use of renewable energy sources. Solar energy is promising but comes with many challenges, two of which relate to this thesis. First, how to promote the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) technology? Second, how to cope with its intermittent power generation?
The first three chapters empirically investigate the impact of social contagion on the adoption of solar PV in Switzerland. Different approaches are used for the same purpose: uncovering the microeconomic and behavioral mechanisms that underlie social spillovers. Using unique georeferenced data and exploiting Swiss specificities, we are able to ascertain the role of both visibility and learning effects. That is, people are more likely to install solar panels if they see their neighbors doing so and if they can learn from their experience. The last chapter deals with the temporal mismatch between electricity supply and demand. Using a field experiment, we explore the possibility of modifying household consumption behavior to allow the integration of a greater share of intermittent solar energy.
One important implication of our findings is that current estimates of the cost-effectiveness of subsidies may be underestimated. For a full assessment, the virtuous circle generated by social spillovers should be taken into account. Overall, the results presented in this thesis call for innovative policy designs. Disseminating pro-environmental social norms at the local level and facilitating knowledge exchange between PV system owners and potential adopters, for instance, may prove relatively inexpensive measures to promote adoption. Encouraging households to redirect their consumption towards sunny hours through lower electricity prices could remove one of the obstacles to the widespread diffusion of solar PV.
Links of interest of Swiss MPs: a comprehensive dataset
This study provides a comprehensive, accurate and ready-to-use dataset on the relationships between the members of the Swiss Parliament and groups of interests. We capture politicians' linkages exploiting (1) their mandates in legal entities; (2) the enterprises, associations or other organizations related to the people they invite for attending parliamentary sessions; and (3) their occupations. Using NOGA 2008 and SSCO 2000 codes, legal entities and professions are classified into 28 categories. We approximate politicians' ties intensity by the number of occurrences in a particular category. The results show that there are substantial differences between the two chambers, and across the main parliamentary groups. The three types of information employed provide complementary information.
A simple command to calculate travel distance and travel time
Obtaining the routing distance between two addresses should not be a hassle with current technology. Unfortunately, this is more complicated than it first seems. Recently, several commands have been implemented for this purpose (traveltime, traveltime3, mqtime, osrmtime), but most of them became obsolete only a few months after their introduction or appear complicated to use. In this article, we introduce the community-contributed command georoute, which retrieves travel distance and travel time between two points defined either by their addresses or by their geographical coordinates. Compared with other existing commands, it is simple to use, efficient in terms of computational speed, and versatile regarding the information that can be provided as input.
Dangerous Liaisons: Interests groups and politicians' votes. A Swiss perspective
Using a unique dataset, based on the 49th Swiss legislature, we assess lobbying effect on politicians' votes. Counselors' ties are approximated by their mandates in legal entities. Political representatives' fidelity to their political group is measured by a dummy proximity indicator. We find that proximity increases over time, as the legislature approaches to the end. Furthermore, using alternative techniques, we find that lobbying matters. More precisely, focusing on the econometric results, once controlled for individual features and political groups affiliation, we find that having mandates in energy, banking and insurance, and in the transport sectors reduces counselors' proximity. Finally, we also find that being male, young and being elected in a French or Italian speaking canton negatively affects the proximity measure.