Resources, Conservation and Recycling

Based on an incentivized survey experiment, we estimate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for three types of efficient shower heads: (i) A “smart” shower head that provides real-time feedback, leading to behavioral changes that may reduce water and energy use. (ii) A “low-flow” shower head that reduces water and energy use by mechanically reducing the water flow. (iii) A low-flow shower head that additionally offers the real-time feedback function. The empirical results show that respondents expect the low-flow shower head to be the most resource conserving, while the WTP is higher for the smart shower head types. This suggests that respondents expect co-benefits from the smart shower head types beyond resource savings. Common arguments against the deployment of efficient shower heads, such as a reduced comfort or shower enjoyment, are not corroborated by our survey data, as only a minority agrees with such concerns.