Elective sufficiency and individual behavioral changes: insights from economics

Sufficiency can be defined as a reduction in energy demand that is not a result of energy efficiency gains. It may result from individual choices, collective norms, or public organizational principles. Whatever the chosen lever, sufficiency is rarely spontaneous. Instead, it results from varying degrees of public encouragement (awareness campaigns and nudges as well as traditional policy tools such as taxes, subsidies and regulations). From the theoretical standpoint, elective (rather than imposed) sufficiency requires a change in people’s true preferences, or the correction of behavioral bias that helps distort choices. Economics makes it possible to improve understanding of the origins of elective sufficiency, drawing on preference-based analysis which must not ignore the collective, social, organizational and institutional mechanisms that help to shape individual behaviors.