Essays in Applied Microeconomics

Abstract

The first two chapters of this thesis are connected by an overarching question: Can we use the electricity price to incentivize electricity consumption when it is plentiful and electricity conservation when it is scarce? At the current stage, electricity cannot easily be stored on a large scale and thus has to be produced when it is needed. And while fossil fuels can be stored to be used when needed, most renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, are not always available, with their availability fluctuating in patterns with limited predictability. The first chapter investigates how much attention households pay to electricity costs. Using data from a field experiment, this chapter shows that households are not fully attentive when it comes to electricity costs, which affects the effectiveness of price incentives to manage short-term electricity demand. However, feedback through smart metering and in-home-displays significantly increases demand responsiveness to electricity price changes. This result highlights the importance of attention when trying to incentivize environmentally friendly behavior in energy consumption. The second chapter builds up on this result and investigates the effectiveness of real-time electricity pricing to manage short-term electricity demand. Using real-life household-level data, this chapter shows that households can react strongly to short-term electricity price changes over the day. <br> In many countries, the Public Employment Service restricts job seekers' job search autonomy through application requirements and vacancy referrals. The third chapter investigates how increasing job seekers' autonomy affects labor market outcomes by analyzing a large labor market reform that actively increased the autonomy and self-responsibility of job seekers. While average unemployment duration increases, job seekers find jobs that better fit their profile and pay better on average, which eventually results in higher tax revenues. The chapter also highlights the role of job search externalities by investigating the reform's effect on job seekers not directly affected by it.