Household electricity demand can be strongly affected by behavioural factors, including the billing structure for electricity. The predominant billing practice, ex-post bills, make electricity consumption an intertemporal problem. With hyperbolic discounting, households’ behaviour exhibits a present bias, which also affects their consumption choices. This seminar will explore the likely effects of these behavioural issues on electricity demand and discuss possible policy options that nudge households to lower electricity usage.

Dr Joerg Lingens is a lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Muenster. He does research on applied economic theory and teaches microeconomics. Previously, he worked as a post-doc at the Department of Economics at Regensburg University. He has published research on various mircoeconomic topics in journals such as The Economic Journal, Labour Economics or Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. Currently, he is part of a research team at the University of Muenster that focusses on the effects of ‘soft’ interventions on energy demand.

This seminar is convened by the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy as part of the Australian-German Energy Transition Research Hub.