Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

Filters

4
Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Preferences on financing mechanisms for thermal retrofit measures in multi-owner buildings: A discrete choice experiment with landlords and owner-occupiers in France
    ( 2023)
    Fanghella, Valeria
    ;
    Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte
    ;
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    ;
    Sebi, Carine
    Thermal retrofit of existing buildings is a major challenge for the energy transition. Retrofitting multi-owner buildings is particularly challenging because it involves multiple co-owners with heterogeneous preferences and incentives to renovate. We conduct a discrete choice experiment on thermal retrofit measures with landlords and owner-occupiers of condominiums in multi-owner buildings in France. Attributes include financing mechanisms (equity, private loan, and collective loan), transferability of loans (i.e. loans, which may be transferred to the next owner in case the condominium is sold), heating cost savings (absolute and relative to other co-owners in the same building), and investment costs. Results from estimating mixed logit models suggest that participants prefer on average equity financing over loan financing and collective loans over private loans. Aversion to loan financing appears to be partly due to debt aversion. The results also suggest that for loan financing, co-owners prefer transferable loans. Further, co-owners do not like retrofit measures that result in higher heating cost savings for other co-owners in the same building than for themselves. Thus, asymmetric distribution of benefits of thermal retrofit measures may impede acceptability of such measures in multi-owner buildings. Finally, the findings provide no evidence for a landlord-tenant split incentives problem in our sample.
  • Publication
    Individual characteristics associated with risk and time preferences: A multi country representative survey
    ( 2023)
    Meissner, Thomas
    ;
    Gassmann, Xavier
    ;
    Faure, Corinne
    ;
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    This paper empirically analyzes how individual characteristics are associated with risk aversion, loss aversion, time discounting, and present bias. To this end, we conduct a large-scale demographically representative survey across eight European countries. We elicit preferences using incentivized multiple price lists and jointly estimate preference parameters to account for their structural dependencies. Our findings suggest that preferences are linked to a variety of individual characteristics such as age, gender, and income as well as some personal values. We also report evidence on the relationship between cognitive ability and preferences. Incentivization, stake size, and the order of presentation of binary choices matter, underlining the importance of controlling for these factors when eliciting economic preferences.
  • Publication
    Social innovation supports inclusive and accelerated energy transitions with appropriate governance
    ( 2023)
    Sovacool, Benjamin K.
    ;
    Brugger, Heike orcid-logo
    ;
    Brunzema, Iska
    ;
    Dańkowska, Alicja
    ;
    Wemyss, Devon
    ;
    Vernay, Anne-Lorène
    ;
    Betz, Regina
    ;
    Avelino, Flor
    ;
    Geus, Tessa de
    ;
    Dembek, Agata
    ;
    Hielscher, Sabine
    ;
    Dütschke, Elisabeth orcid-logo
    ;
    Iskandarova, Marfuga
    ;
    Müller, Leticia
    ;
    Musiolik, Jörg
    ;
    Ranville, Adélie
    ;
    Stasik, Agata
    ;
    Strumińska-Kutra, Marta
    ;
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    ;
    Winzer, Christian
    ;
    Wittmayer, Julia
    ;
    Rogge, Karoline S.
    Accelerating energy transitions that are both sustainable and just remains an important challenge, and social innovation can have a key role in this transition. Here, we examine the diversity and potential of social innovation in energy systems transformation, synthesizing original mixed methods data from expert interviews, document analysis, social innovation experiments, a representative survey, and an expert survey. Based on a thematic analysis of these data, we advance four key findings: (1) the diversity of social innovation in energy is best understood when recognizing core social practices (thinking, doing, and organizing) and accounting for changes in social relations (cooperation, exchange, competition, and conflict); (2) governance, policy networks, and national context strongly shape social innovation dynamics; (3) processes of social innovation are implicated by multidimensional power relations that can result in transformative changes; and (4) social innovation in energy generally has strong social acceptance among citizens, benefits local communities and is legitimized in key community and city organizations. We discuss an agenda for 9 future research directions on social innovation in energy, and conclude with insights related to national context, governance, and acceleration.
  • Publication
    Linking of a multi-country discrete choice experiment and an agent-based model to simulate the diffusion of smart thermostats
    ( 2022)
    Chappin, Emile J.L.
    ;
    Schleich, Joachim orcid-logo
    ;
    Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte
    ;
    Faure, Corinne
    ;
    Bouwmans, Ivo
    In this paper, we link findings from a demographically representative discrete choice experiment (DCE) in eight European countries on the adoption of smart thermostats with an agent-based model (ABM) in a methodologically consistent way. We employ the ABM to simulate the diffusion pattern of smart thermostats until 2030 and to examine the effects of subsidies and recommendations by specific agents. Our findings highlight the importance of allowing for within- and across country heterogeneity in preferences for these policies and for technology attributes such as heating cost savings. Further, social interactions reinforce country differences in technology stock in the starting year of the simulations. We find that subsidies moderately accelerate the diffusion of smart thermostats, but they are less effective in countries with a large stock of smart thermostats in the starting year, strong preferences for heating cost savings, and when smart thermostats lead to a strong reduction in heating costs. For some countries, targeting subsidies at particular socio-economic groups (in our case low-income households) slightly mitigates free-riding effects. Our policy simulations further imply that recommendations by energy providers or by energy experts accelerate the diffusion of smart thermostats compared to recommendations by peers.