Data and Code for: Show Me the Money! A Field Experiment on Electric Vehicle Charge Timing

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Megan Bailey, University of Calgary, Haskayne School of Business and School of Public Policy; David Brown, University of Alberta, Deparatment of Economics; Blake Shaffer, University of Calgary, Department of Economics and School of Public Policy; Frank Wolak, Stanford University, Department of Economics

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication File			08/23/2024 01:41:PM

Project Citation:

Bailey, Megan , Brown, David , Shaffer, Blake , and Wolak, Frank. Data and Code for: Show Me the Money! A Field Experiment on Electric Vehicle Charge Timing. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-04-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/E202941V1

Project Description

Summary: We use a field experiment to measure the effectiveness of financial incentives to shift the timing of electric vehicle (EV) charging. EV owners respond strongly to financial incentives, reducing charging during peak hours by 49% by shifting to off-peak hours. In contrast, a pro-social information treatment has no discernible effect. When financial incentives are removed, charge timing reverts to pre-intervention behavior, reinforcing that "money matters". Our findings highlight the substantial flexibility of EV charging compared to other forms of electricity demand. Such flexibility has the potential to greatly reduce future electric system costs arising from a rapidly decarbonizing transportation sector.

Funding Sources: Canada First Research Excellence Fund, University of Alberta Future Energy Systems; University of Calgary, Global Research Initiative; Alberta Innovates; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada)

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      Q40 Energy: General
      Q41 Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices
      Q50 Environmental Economics: General
      R48 Transportation Economics: Government Pricing and Policy

Geographic Coverage: Alberta Canada

Time Period(s): 2/1/2022 – 12/31/2022

Universe: Electric Vehicle drivers in Calgary Alberta Canada

Methodology

Response Rate: 217 vehicles signed up for the program. Participants were mailed a physical device with instructions on how to connect it to their vehicle's onboard diagnostic port. The monitoring device was successfully installed in 150 vehicles.

Sampling: Multi-stage, clustered randomized sampling

Data Source: 1. Data provided by ENMAX
2. Weather Data collected by Environment Canada, available at: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/index_e.html

Unit(s) of Observation: households

Geographic Unit: vehicle-level data in Calgary Alberta

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-04-17]

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