The EVIDENT Discrete Choice Experiment seeks to explore the impact of energy related financial literacy, consumer motivation, point-of-sale information and demographic factors on discount rate and willingness to pay for efficient household appliances. Across a series of choice experiments, the impact of factors such as financial information (purchase price, operating cost, salience of financial information), risk reduction (i.e. extended warranty), and financial capacity (i.e. low cost loans) on implicit discount rates for home appliances is examined. Further, the impact of direct rebound rates on efficient appliance selection is examined.
The experiment consists of the following sections: 1) demographic information; 2) current home appliance purchasing behaviour; 3) financial literacy; 4) environmental literacy; 5) stated preference experiment consisting of four choice points; 6) discount rates; 7) discrete choice experiment consisting of ten choice points; and 8) questions examining direct rebound rates associated with the novel appliance selected.
As noted above, two choice experiments are included within the current use case. The first of these is a stated preference experiment which examines the impact of financial and energy framing on willingness-to-pay for energy efficient appliances. Four choice points are presented within this experiment. Choice 1 presents five identical versions of an appliance which differ only by key feature, and seeks to reduce hypothetical bias across the choice experiment. For example, for a washing machine the key features are cost, capacity, spin speed, quick wash time and pause wash functionality. Choice 2 consists of the participants initial choice (at choice 1) alongside alternatives which differ only in purchase price and energy rating, with purchase price greater for more efficient appliances (I.e. A rated appliances are most expensive; D rated appliances are least expensive). Choice 3 is similar to choice 2, however in this instance operational costs per month are also presented. Again, operational costs are lower for more efficient appliances. Choice 3 is similar to choice 3 however in this instance operational costs per year are presented.
The second choice experiment is the DCE which explores the relative impacts of risk reduction (extended warranty), and financial supports (low cost loan, loan term) on willingness to invest in more efficient energy appliances. Attributes were selected based on literature review, focus group analyses, cognitive walk-through and usability analyses. Once final attributes were determined, choice cards were developed using a fractional factorial design. A statistically efficient main-effects design with 10 choice sets was created in R studio using the idefix package. As such, participants are presented with a series of ten choice points, each consisting of two appliances and a ‘no preference’ option.
More information on the EVIDENT Discrete Choice Experiment can be found on the public deliverables of the EVIDENT project https://evident-h2020.eu/deliverables/. More specifically, the experiment’s theoretical framework and motivation are described in deliverable D1.2  Assessing behavioural biases and financial literacy, in section 5 while the final design is reported in D2.2  Optimised Protocols Design.
Cite as: Delemere, Emma, & Liston, Paul. (2023). EVIDENT H2020 – Discrete Choice Experiment Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7825986
Zenodo URL: https://zenodo.org/record/7825986