Résultat de la recherche
Travel Mode Choices in a Greening Market: The Impact of Electric Vehicles and Prior Investments
Travailleurs frontaliers en Suisse: Le hiatus persistant entre recherche et opinion publique
Les travailleurs frontaliers constituent une part importante de la force de travail en Suisse. Dans certains cantons, leur proportion dépasse 25 % de la population active. Une telle présence fait évidemment naître des ressentiments, et les frontaliers sont souvent considérés comme une menace pour les travailleurs résidents. Selon l’opinion publique, les travailleurs frontaliers seraient ainsi responsables de graves problèmes, tels que chômage et pression sur les salaires. Toutefois, la littérature scientifique contredit ces observations. De manière générale, les analyses statistiques ne font ressortir que des effets d’ampleur modeste, voire inexistants. Il faut toutefois relever que les effets moyens masquent des effets différenciés suivant le niveau de qualification, et certains travailleurs sont négativement impactés. Il est donc possible que quelques cas emblématiques et médiatisés puissent forger l’opinion publique, sans qu’ils ne constituent en réalité une norme.
A step-by-step procedure to implement discrete choice experiments in Qualtrics
Discrete choice experiment (DCE) is a well-established technique to elicit stated preferences. It is frequently used in social sciences, where revealed preferences are difficult or sometimes even impossible to collect. A DCE consists in a series of choice tasks, in which survey respondents are requested to select the alternative they prefer among a few ones. Even though DCEs are conceptually well-known and documented, the practitioner may face technical issues once turning to their concrete implementation. This methodological note provides a step-by-step procedure to implement a DCE using the survey software Qualtrics. The procedure is largely automated, relying on the statistical software Stata and using HTML code to display the choice tasks in a pleasant way. Basic knowledge of Stata and HTML is desirable but not an absolute requirement. This note is intended to Qualtrics users, and prior knowledge of this survey tool is therefore assumed. A full working example with all codes and material is provided and presented.
Consumers' preferences on the Swiss car market: A revealed preference approach
This paper investigates demand responses to variations in the characteristics of the vehicles. Our investigation is based on number of sales for each model marketed over the period 2006–2015 in Switzerland, and puts particular emphasis on fuel efficiency, curb weight, horsepower, and the potential interactions between these attributes. We find that market shares are significantly higher for more efficient and powerful vehicles, while light cars are preferred to heavy ones. Our results also point to a gradual increase of sensitivity to fuel efficiency over the last decade. However, interaction effects between engine fuel efficiency and power indicate a lower marginal valuation of fuel efficiency in the market segments for relatively powerful cars, hence a lower sensitivity to fuel efficiency among the consumers with the highest potential for polluting emissions. Also, these findings point to potential rebound effects, where consumers give up part of the expected fuel savings by purchasing more powerful vehicles.
Energy efficiency and heating technology investments: Manipulating financial information in a discrete choice experiment
Les intentions contradictoires des Suisses vis-à-vis de leur consommation d’énergie
Cet article discute les intentions des ménages suisses de réduire leur consommation d'énergie. Il examine leurs connaissances en matière d'énergie ainsi que l'acceptation et la visibilité de la taxe CO2. Les données utilisées proviennent de l'enquête Swiss Household Energy Demand Survey (SHEDS), effectuée annuellement depuis 2016 sur un échantillon d'environ 5'000 ménages suisses. Notre analyse fait ressortir un écart entre les villes et les communes non urbaines. Bien que la taxe CO2 bénéficie du soutien de la majorité des répondants, elle manque de visibilité. La plupart des gens croient en son efficacité pour les entreprises mais non pour les ménages, et parmi les mé-nages directement concernés, beaucoup ne savent pas qu'ils sont affectés par la taxe. Notre ana-lyse fait également ressortir une disjonction entre les intentions et les connaissances, remettant en question le lien présumé entre information et action.
Who is sensitive to DSM? Understanding the determinants of the shape of electricity load curves and demand shifting: Socio-demographic characteristics, appliance use and attitudes
To date, research on demand side management has mostly focused on the determinants of electricity consumption and stated preference experiments to understand social acceptability. Further experimental research is needed to identify the determinants for demand response schemes. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by making use of data from a randomised control trial which contains 15 months of smart meter electricity data combined with household characteristics and differences in incentives to shift their electricity use between 11am and 3pm. Cluster analysis performed on electricity data identified three distinct electricity daily load profiles. Each cluster was then linked to household characteristics by means of a multinomial logistic regression to identify the determinants of the load curves' shapes. Findings show that occupancy presence at home, age and appliance ownership were strong predictors. Finally, this paper is among the first to provide experimental evidence on the determinants of load shifting. We find that households with head aged above 65, households who belong to the cluster exhibiting a load profile characterised by a relatively high peak at noon and a low peak in the evening, and those who received money incentives were more likely to shift electricity use towards middle of the day (11am-3pm).
CO2 embodied in trade: trends and fossil fuel drivers
The amount of CO2 embodied in trade has substantially increased over the last decades. We contribute to understanding the reasons for this evolution by studying the trends and some drivers of the carbon intensity of trade over the period 1995–2009 in 41 countries and 35 sectors. Our empirical analysis relies on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) to compute embodied carbon emissions. Our main findings are the following. First, average emission intensity of traded goods is higher than average emission intensity of final demand. Second, relatively “dirty” countries tend to specialize in emission-intensive sectors. Third, the share of goods produced in emission-intensive countries is rising. Finally, we find that coal abundance (measured as fuel rent and controlling for reverse causality) leads both to a specialization in “dirty” sectors and to an increase in emissions per output when controlling for sector structure, which amounts to a fossil fuel endowment effect. These findings suggest trade liberalization may increase global emissions and therefore highlight the importance of considering trade when designing CO2 reduction strategies.
Commitments and sunk costs in private mobility: A study of Swiss households facing green transport choices
This paper experimentally investigates the existence of behavioural deviations from the oft-assumed rationality in private transport decisions, avoiding the selection-biases in revealed data. Through a choice experiment answered by 995 Swiss respondents, we explore the linkages between long- and medium-term travel investment decisions, and the choice of transport mode. We test the existence of commitment device usage in car and public transport pass purchases, and the sunk cost fallacy, as well as the impact of electric vehicles on mode choice. We find little evidence to support the existence of commitment devices, and no sunk cost fallacy. We further show that electric vehicle owners are equally likely to commute in their car, however use a greater mix of transport modes for leisure and long-distance trips. Our results support the importance of marginal travel costs in transport policy, as well as demonstrate the wide impact of rising EV consumption.
Consumers' preferences for electricity-saving programs: Evidence from a choice-based conjoint study
Electric utilities play a crucial role in designing and deploying electricity conservation programs. However, because people can freely decide to participate in such programs or not, better understanding what types of programs appeal to specific groups of customers is fundamental. The authors therefore explore preferences of likely subscribers for electricity-saving programs defined by various features (such as goal setting, tailored feedback provision, or reward and penalty schemes), and use a latent class approach to capture heterogeneity and detect segments of people that share similar preferences. The segments are subsequently profiled in terms of socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics. Overall, results show that there is considerable heterogeneity in tastes for different features of electricity-saving programs. The findings allow identifying individual characteristics that influence the likelihood to adopt different forms of programs. On this basis, electric utilities may design electricity-saving programs that better satisfy customer needs and effectively tailor marketing and communication programs to the specific target groups.