"Consumer Protection and Market Efficiency under Energy Price Shocks", with J.Lunghi, G.d'Adda, C.Cattaneo and M.Tavoni, 2026, pdf
Fixed-term retail energy contracts shield consumers from market volatility but may distort consumption by implicitly subsidizing usage when prices rise. Using high-frequency consumption and billing data from a large electricity utility, we study household responses to a default transition from fixed-price to indexed-price contracts throughout the 2022 EU energy crisis. We find that electricity demand is relatively inelastic, but responsiveness increases over time. The transition induces financial distress, increasing missed payments and installment plans, and raises switching rates. Fixed-price contracts generate distributional effects that are regressive in absolute terms but progressive relative to income, with efficiency losses concentrated at the tails of the income distribution.
"From Protest to Action? Climate Strikes and Household Energy Consumption", with D.Curzi, G.D'Adda and S.Ferro, 2025, pdf
In recent years, a global movement against climate change has been rising. Existing evidence on how these political events impact real-world environmental behavior is scarce. In this paper, we employ electricity-use data covering 1.5 million Italian households over the period 2015-2019 to show that climate strikes cause a significant reduction in energy consumption, although these effects are modest in magnitude and short-lived, as is typical of salience-induced behavioral changes. A granular measure of social media attention to climate change, derived from universal-coverage Twitter data, and sentiment analysis suggest that climate protests direct public attention towards climate change topics and foster emotions that are strong motivators for action, such as anger and positive feelings of solidarity. These results suggest that episodes that heighten attention to climate change may lead to actual behavioral change, but their effect is small and short-lived.
"The Effect of Air Purifiers in Schools ", with F.Granella, S.Renna, L.Sarmiento and M.Tavoni, 2026, pdf
AEA RCT Registry link; students' survey
"Indigenous Associations and Public Goods Provision: Experimental Evidence from grins in Mali", with J.Bleck, R.Forshaw, P.LeMay-Boucher, and B.Sarr, 2026
In developing countries, community-driven development programs often partner with indigenous associations under the assumption that their members possess social capital that facilitates collective action. Yet it remains unclear whether such capital is portable across settings, or whether cooperative advantages are specific to longstanding social relationships. We study informal indigenous associations, social clubs known as grins, in urban Mali using a field experiment involving 635 groups (6,245 individuals). We implement step-level public goods games with two contribution thresholds in three environments: within existing grins, in groups composed of grin members drawn from different associations, and in groups of non-members. Existing grins exhibit contribution rates that are 3–10 percentage points higher across orders of play. They are more likely to meet contribution thresholds in initial interactions. To help distinguish membership effects from relationship-specific effects, we compare grin members and non-members when both play in stranger groups, and we separately compare grin members playing within versus outside their own associations using inverse probability weighting to adjust for observable group characteristics. We find little evidence that grin members contribute more than non-members when placed in mixed stranger groups. By contrast, cooperation remains higher when individuals interact within their own grin, consistent with relationship-specific social capital rather than portable membership effects. Higher contribution thresholds increase contributions but reduce provision success across environments. The cooperative advantages of indigenous associations appear to be tied to embedded social relationships rather than membership alone, with implications for the design of decentralized public good provision in low-capacity settings.
Bonan, J., H.Kazianga and M.Mendola (2025) "Agricultural Transformation and Farmers' Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Uganda", Review of Economics and Statistics, pdf, appendix, replication
Bonan, J., C.Cattaneo, G.D'Adda, A.Galliera and M.Tavoni (2025) "Social norms and tariff salience: An experimental study on household waste management", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, pdf
Bonan, J., C.Cattaneo, G.D'Adda, and M.Tavoni (2024) "Heat of the moment: How temperature influences the search and purchase of energy-using appliances", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, pdf
Bonan, J., C.Cattaneo, G.D'Adda, A.Galliera and M.Tavoni (2024) "Widening the scope: the direct and spillover effects of nudging water efficiency in the presence of other behavioral interventions", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, pdf
Bonan, J., S.Burlacu and A.Galliera (2023) "Prosociality in variants of the dictator game: evidence from children in El Salvador", Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, pdf
Bleck, J., J.Bonan, P.LeMay-Boucher and B.Sarr (2023) "Drinking Tea with Neighbours: Social Capital and Social Trust in Mali”, American Political Science Review, pdf
Bonan, J., G.d'Adda, M.Mahmud, and F.Said (2023) "Nudging Payment Behaviour: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Pay-as-You-Go Off-Grid Electricity", World Bank Economic Review, 37 (4) 620-639, pdf
Bonan, J., P.LeMay-Boucher and D.Scott, (2022) “Can Hypothetical Time Discounting Rates Help Predict Actual and Incentivised Behaviour? Evidence from Senegal”, World Development, 159, pdf
Bonan, J., C.Cattaneo, G.D'Adda and M.Tavoni, (2021) "Can social information programs be more effective? The role of environmental identity for energy conservation", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 108, pdf
Bonan, J., P.Battiston, J.Bleck, P.LeMay-Boucher, S.Pareglio, B.Sarr and M.Tavoni (2021) "Social Interaction and Technology Adoption: Experimental Evidence from Improved Cookstoves in Mali", World Development, 144 pdf , appendix
Bonan, J., C.Cattaneo, G.D'Adda and M.Tavoni (2020) "The interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation", Nature Energy 5(11): 900-909. pdf, Suppl. Info, Policy Brief
Bonan, J., Cattaneo, C., d’Adda, G. and M.Tavoni (2020) “Combining information on others’ energy usage and their approval of energy conservation promotes energy saving behaviour” Nature Energy 5, 832–833.
McNabb, K, P.LeMay-Boucher and J. Bonan (2019) "Enforcement Problems in ROSCAs: Evidence from Benin", European Journal of Development Research, 31(5): 1389-1415. pdf
Bonan, J., K. McNabb, P.LeMay-Boucher and Tomavo C.C. (2019) “Time preferences and commitment devices: evidence from ROSCAs and funeral groups in Benin ", Oxford Development Studies, 47(3): 356-372 . pdf
Bonan, J. and Pagani, L. (2018) "Junior Farmer Field Schools, Agricultural Knowledge and Spillover Effects: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Northern Uganda", Journal of Development Studies, 54(11): 2007-2022. pdf.
Bonan, J., P.LeMay-Boucher and M.Tenikue (2017) “Increasing anti-malaria bednet take-up using information and distribution strategies: Evidence from a field trial in Senegal”, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 9(4): 543-562. pdf
Bonan, J., Pareglio, S. and Tavoni M. (2017) "Access to Modern Energy: a Review of Barriers, Drivers and Impacts", Environment and Development Economics, 22(5): 491-516. pdf
Bonan, J., P.LeMay-Boucher, O.Dagnelie and M.Tenikue (2017) “The Impact of Insurance Literacy and Marketing Treatments on the Demand for Health Microinsurance in Senegal: A Randomized Evaluation”, Journal of African Economies, 26(2): 169-191. pdf
Bonan, J., V.Rotondi and S.Pareglio (2015) “Impact Evaluation of Agricultural Development Programs”, Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali 4: 369-380.
Bonan, J., P.LeMay-Boucher and M.Tenikue (2014) “Household's willingness to pay for health microinsurance and its impact on actual take-up: results from a field experiment in Senegal”, Journal of Development Studies 50(10): 1445-1462. pdf
Bonan, J and X. Scheil-Adlung (2013) “Gaps in social protection for health and long-term care in Europe: Are the elderly faced with financial ruin?”, International Social Security Review 66(1): 25–48.
"Green Nudges and Information Avoidance: An Experimental Investigation with European Farmers", with J.Picard, S.Cerroni, J.Barreiro-Hurle, B.Ouvrard
"Farmers’ Acceptability and Perceived Efficacy of Green Nudges: A Best-Worst Scaling experiment in Europe", with F.R. Barba, J. Picard, S.Cerroni, J.Barreiro-Hurle, E.Wauters, A.Spriet, N.El Benni, F.Alcon
"Recalling Violence Exposure and Cognitive Function among Primary School Students in El Salvador", with S.Burlacu and A.Galliera