Research into barriers of homeowners’ energy renovation decisions

Gerdien de Vries will be supervising Shima Ebrahimigharehbaghi, a PhD student of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Shima will be doing research into cognitive biases, and behavioural factors and transaction costs barriers to the homeowners’ energy renovation decisions, for the upcoming 4 years. This project is part of the IEBB programme. The IEBB programme stands for integrated energy transition for existing buildings and has received a 13,8 million euro grant to develop affordable and user-friendly renovation concepts in the coming years.

About the project

The project is to explore the possibility of combining New Institutional Economics on transaction costs theory and Behavioural Economics on a cognitive-behavioural approach, to explain the barriers that exist in the decision-making process of the homeowners in energy efficiency renovation context. So policy intervention can be recommended with supporting rationale and empirical evidence. The project receives attention and support from consortium partners, including the Municipality of Den Haag, Amsterdam, TNO, Milieu Centraal and Enpuls.