@misc{29572,
  author = {Gregory Nemet and Eric O’Shaughnessy and Ryan H Wiser and Naïm R Darghouth and Galen L Barbose and Ken Gillingham and Varun Rai},
  title = {Sources of Price Dispersion in U.S. Residential Solar Installations},
  abstract = {<p>Prices of solar PV have dropped dramatically, by half in just the past 6 years. &nbsp;But looking simply at prices paid today, there is considerable heterogeneity. For systems installed in 2014, the 10-90 percentile range for the observed $/W spans nearly a factor of 2. This apparent price dispersion raises policy-relevant questions, such as: why are consumers paying more than they need to? And would better-informed consumers increase the social benefits of solar PV? This paper analyzes price dispersion in U.S. residential PV installations between 2008 and 2014.&nbsp; Focusing on the most commonly used metric in previous studies of price dispersion, we use the quarterly coefficient of variation (CV) as our measure of price dispersion.&nbsp; We find higher levels of price dispersion in our data (0.22) than the average of 55 previous studies we reviewed (0.16).&nbsp; We also find that price dispersion has been persistent; it has remained above 0.15 since 2000 with no trend over that period.&nbsp; If anything, price dispersion has been increasing recently during the period for which we have complete data, 2008-14.&nbsp; Econometric analysis of the factors affecting price dispersion supports theories from the economic literature focusing on access to information and the costs and benefits of consumer search.&nbsp; Factors that increase the consumer payoffs of investing time in searching for information—system size and the value of solar—are associated with lower levels of price dispersion.&nbsp; Factors that reduce the costs of search—neighbors who have recently installed solar and having third-party quotes available—are also associated with less price dispersion.&nbsp; These results provide support for the importance of public efforts to enhance access to price information, e.g. by supporting price quote providers.&nbsp; The results also point to the particular need for information in nascent markets for PV in which access to the experience of neighbors is not available.</p>},
  year = {2017},
  month = {05/2017},
}