Title: Evidence-based Cooling Strategies for a Warming World: Assessing Supply and Demand Conditions in the Indian Market for Energy Efficient Fans
Speaker: Prof. Meredith Fowlie, University of California, Berkeley
Day, Date and Time: Tuesday, September 6, 2022, 5:00 PM
Abstract: In this talk, I will present our work on assessing the supply and demand conditions for super-efficient fans in India, focusing in particular on hard-to-access markets where a majority of India's poorest households live. In our work, we have implemented a two-stage study for assessment. First, we assess the real-world performance of ceiling fans (both standard fans and super-efficient models) in a small-scale field trial that enlisted the cooperation of 36 representative households. We then use performance and usage data collected from this trial to calibrate estimates of private and social benefits from efficient fan adoption. In a second stage, working in collaboration with local shop-owners, we conducted a field experiment to assess household demand for energy-efficient fans in low-income market segments. On the supply-side, we pilot an intervention that provides local shop owners with the skills they need to procure, market, and sell energy-efficient fans. On the demand side, we implemented a sales trial with over 1700 households. Offered purchase prices range from INR 1200 to the current procurement price of INR 2390. No households are willing to pay the current procurement price. This finding is unsurprising because households paying highly subsidized electricity prices capture a small share of the benefits generated by energy efficiency investments. However, at subsidy levels that can be rationalized on the basis of external benefits, over 90 percent of households purchase energy-efficient fans. The success we demonstrate with our local partnerships indicate that if fan prices are subsidized, networks of local women's groups are well-positioned to market and sell energy-efficient fans in hard-to-reach rural and peri-urban markets.
This is a joint project between University of California and IIT Bombay, funded by Energy and Economic Growth (EEG), UK. Implementation partners includes India's Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Jeevika, a network of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Bihar.
About the Speaker: Meredith Fowlie holds the Class of 1935 Endowed Chair in Energy at UC Berkeley. She is a Professor in the Agriculture and Resource Economics department, faculty co-director at the Energy Institute at Haas, an affiliated faculty of the Energy and Resources Group, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Energy and Environmental Economics group.
Prof. Fowlie has worked extensively on the economics of energy markets and the environment. Her research investigates real-world applications of market-based environmental regulations, the economics of energy efficiency, the demand-side of energy markets, and energy use in emerging economies. Her work has appeared in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and other academic journals.
She received a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley in 2006, an M.Sc. from Cornell in 2000, and a B.Sc. from Cornell in 1997. Before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.