Moira Nicolson

Moira Nicolson

Researcher in the Behavioural Insights Unit at Ofgem

Moira Nicolson

Researcher in the Behavioural Insights Unit at Ofgem
UCL Energy Institute
m.nicolson.11@ucl.ac.uk

Biography

Moira Nicolson is interested in designing interventions based on insights from behavioural economics and testing their effectiveness at encouraging consumers to participate in demand-side-response to reduce peak demand for electricity. Her MRes project used a randomised control trial to test whether behavioural economic interventions could be used to boost the number of British consumers switching to time-of-use (off-peak) electricity tariffs.

She obtained an MSc in Public Policy from UCL in 2013 where she specialised in quantitative research methods and econometrics, completing a thesis which exploited a natural experiment to assess the impact of female representation in Indian local government on contraception use by women.

Alongside her MSc, Moira worked first as a project manager for a training consultancy firm, where she won an award for her work on a behaviour-change project for her client Transport for London, and then in the campaigns team at the international-development charity VSO.

She obtained a BA in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of York in 2010.

Projects

Congratulations to UCL Energy LoLo CDT PhD graduates who attended UCL Graduation Ceremony 2018

Congratulations to UCL Energy LoLo CDT PhD graduates who attended UCL Graduation Ceremony 2018

W5UP11 What about demand-side response? Using behavioural economics to boost consumer switching rates to time-of-use electricity tariffs – evidence from field experiments

W5UP5 How can we encourage consumers to switch to time of use tariffs? Evidence from a randomised control trial on a nationally representative sample of British energy bill payers

W5UP5 How can we encourage consumers to switch to time of use tariffs? Evidence from a randomised control trial on a nationally representative sample of British energy bill payers

Students