The research article entitled “Household reduction of gas consumption in the energy crisis is not explained by individual economic incentives” by Markus Dertwinkel-Kalt, Christoph Feldhaus, Axel Ockenfels and Matthias Sutter has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study examines the effectiveness of political and economic measures to reduce gas consumption during the 2022/23 energy crisis.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting disruption of gas supplies to Europe, European politicians and public utilities appealed to the population to save energy and introduced economic incentives such as the German “gas price brake”. However, the analysis shows that these incentives had little impact on consumer behavior. In fact, demand for gas is largely price inelastic and a majority of households do not understand or respond to the economic incentives.

Through a survey and a field experiment with a German gas supplier, the authors found that the significant gas savings were primarily due to a change in societal awareness. The energy crisis and the associated social commitment led to energy saving becoming a social priority that goes beyond individual economic incentives.

Household reduction of gas consumption in the energy crisis is not explained by individual economic incentives