eco labeling in commercial office markets do leed and energy star offices obtain multiple premiums this paper investigates the effect of eco labeling on rental rates sale prices and occupancy rates the consensus emerging from previous studies appears to be that investors in and occupiers of eco labeled buildings obtain a bundle of benefits related to lower operating costs reputation benefits and productivity higher in this study a hedonic model is used to test whether the presence of an eco label has a significantly positive effect on rental rates sale prices and occupancy rates of commercial office buildings in the us the results suggest that office buildings with energy star or leed eco labels obtain rental premia of approximately 3 5 dual certification produces an additive effect with rental premia estimated at 9 respective sale price premia for energy star and leed labeled office buildings are 18 and 25 the sale price premium for dual certification is estimated at 28 29 an occupancy premium could not be confirmed for leed labeled office buildings and only a small positive occupancy premium was found for energy star

impacts of long range increases in the fuel economy cafe standard i introduction and background in 1975 the u s government enacted legislation regulating the fuel efficiency of new motor vehicles the apparent objective of this law is to reduce american dependence on foreign oil after large increases in the price of petroleum in the late 1990s and with continued conflict in the middle east corporate average fuel economy cafe standards once again became a topic of interest a number of proposals for changing the cafe standards were discussed in congress in early 2002 culminating in a defeat in the senate of an amendment that would have required a 50 increase in the relevant cafe standards in place of that increase the senate voted to require the executive branch to examine the impact of further increases in the cafe standard this work evaluates the long term economic implications of raising the standard by 3 0 miles per gallon mpg above current levels in industry parlance this approach is sometimes referred to as technology forcing i choose 3 0 mpg because it reflects the focus of a may 2001 report by the vice president s task force on energy policy and because it reflects several legislative proposals in congress 1 the long term refers to a length of time such that manufacturers can adjust vehicle technologies and powertrain designs to reduce the amount of fuel required to move a given amount of mass or to achieve a given amount of performance or acceleration per gallon of fuel consumed previous work on cafe standards such as kleit 1990 and thorpe 1997 focused on short term responses to higher cafe standards where technology forcing was not an option for manufacturers the analysis is conducted under two different scenarios the first scenario is that cafe standards are not binding in the current marketplace the second scenario takes account of the current impact of cafe standards and then analyzes the costs and benefits of increasing the standards the costs of cafe standards are broken down into two areas the changes in consumer and producer surplus and the increase in externalities caused by the increased driving that higher cafe standards induce the plan of this article is as follows section ii reviews the history of cafe standards and briefly discusses the rationale for the regulation section iii develops a model in which the current cafe standard is assumed to be nonbinding section iv provides estimates of the impacts for a long term 3 0 mpg cafe increase under the assumption that the current standard is not binding section v then revises the model to take into account the arguably more realistic assumption that the existing cafe standard was in fact binding it then reports estimates for a long term 3 0 mpg increase section vi provides a brief cost benefit analysis of cafe increases and section vii provides a summary and conclusion ii background on automobile fuel economy standards a brief history of the cafe program the cafe program as enacted in 1975 called for all manufacturers selling more than 10 000 autos per year in the united states to reach the mandated cafe levels cafe levels rose from 19 0 mpg in 1978 to 27 5 mpg in 1985 and later years a manufacturer s domestic and foreign cars are placed in separate cafe categories based on the domestic context of the vehicle if a car has over 75 american context it is considered domestic and placed in the domestic pool otherwise it is placed in the foreign car pool see kleit 1990 for a discussion light trucks pickup trucks sport utility vehicles suvs and minivans were placed in a different cafe pool than cars when cafe standards were originally passed these vehicles represented a small fraction of the relevant market by 2001 however such vehicles made up approximately one half of the sales of personal vehicles in 2001 light trucks were required to reach 20 7 mpg there is no domestic and foreign division in the cafe regulation for light trucks

the use and abuse of meta analysis in environmental and natural resource economics an assessment motivated by the 2006 report of a work group appointed by the environmental protection agency epa this paper examines the present state of meta analysis in environmental economics and offers recommendations for its future use to this end we summarize and assess 140 meta analyses from 125 published and unpublished studies covering 17 topical categories in environmental and resource economics first we provide several generic meta analysis models as reference points and discuss major estimation issues five econometric issues are identified as part of a complete analysis 1 sample selection criteria 2 basic data summary 3 primary data heterogeneity 4 heteroskedasticity and 5 non independence of multiple observations from primary studies second a tabular summary is presented for the 140 meta analyses with respect to estimation methods third a narrative summary is presented for 19 meta analyses including the three value of statistical life studies examined by the epa work group and one analysis from each of 16 other categories fourth we offer a set of best practice guidelines for future meta analyses in this and other areas of economics last the paper comments on the use of meta analytic methods for benefit transfers of environmental values

clearing the air the costs and consequences of higher cafe standards and increased gasoline taxes abstract concerns about energy security and climate change have sparked legislators interest in reducing gasoline consumption by increasing corporate average fuel economy cafe standards using an empirically rich simulation model and cost estimates for anticipated fuel economy technologies we estimate annual costs of reducing long run gasoline consumption by 10 via a 3 8 miles per gallon increase in the standards and the potential cost savings from allowing manufacturers to buy and sell fuel economy credits maximum gasoline savings would be realized only after all existing vehicles were replaced or 14 years in our model a gasoline tax would produce greater immediate savings by encouraging people to drive less and eventually to choose more fuel efficient vehicles we demonstrate the advantage of a tax by comparing the cost of the higher cafe standards over the first 14 years against the cost of a gasoline tax that would save the same amount of gasoline over that time

implementation of energy efficiency projects by dutch industry as potentials for energy savings are huge industry can provide a major contribution to energy savings goals this paper focuses on the energy savings realized under the dutch voluntary agreements in the period 2001 2011 participants in these schemes are obliged to plan and implement all measures with a payback period of less than 5 years this paper shows how many of these projects have been implemented and how much savings they generate our findings show that large differences exist in the realized savings between individual companies there is however no significant difference in savings observed between companies that participate in the emission trading system ets and companies that do not although it is impossible to disentangle the drivers behind the implementation of these projects the amount of savings suggest that at least part of them was implemented because of different energy policy instruments

distributional and efficiency impacts of increased us gasoline taxes we examine the impacts of increased us gasoline taxes in a model that links the markets for new used and scrapped vehicles and recognizes the consider able heterogeneity among households and cars household choice parameters derive from an estimation procedure that integrates individual choices for car ownership and miles traveled we find that each cent per gallon increase in the price of gasoline reduces the equilibrium gasoline consumption by about 0 2

energy efficiency standards for refrigerators in brazil a methodology for impact evaluation abstract in brazil energy efficiency standards for cold appliances was established in 2007 a specified single set of meps minimum energy performance standards for refrigerators freezers and freezer refrigerators was implemented without evaluating its impacts and estimation of potential electricity savings this paper presents a methodology for assessing the impacts of the brazilian meps for cold appliances it uses a bottom up approach to estimate residential end use consumption and to evaluate the energy saving potential for refrigerators the household electricity consumption is projected by modeling appliance ownership using an econometric approach based on the recent household survey data a cost benefit analysis for more stringent standards is presented from the perspective of the society and electricity customers the results showed that even considering the current market conditions high discount rate for financing new efficient equipment some meps options are advantageous for customers the analysis also demonstrates significant cost effective saving potential from the society perspective that could reach 21 twh throughout the period of 2010 2030 about 25 of current residential consumption

willingness to pay and price elasticities of demand for energy efficient appliances combining the hedonic approach and demand systems abstract this article proposes a combined approach for estimating willingness to pay for the attributes represented by energy efficiency labels and providing reliable price elasticities of demand own and cross for close substitutes e g those with low energy efficiency and those with higher energy efficiency this is done by using the results of the hedonic approach together with the quantity based demand system qbds model the elasticity results obtained with the latter are then compared with those simulated using the linear almost ideal demand system la aids the methodology is applied to the dishwasher market in spain it is found that 15 6 of the final price is actually paid for the energy efficiency attribute this accounts for about 80 of the average market price the elasticity results confirm that energy efficient appliances are more price elastic than regular ones

household energy use applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision making and behaviour household energy conservation has emerged as a major challenge and opportunity for researchers practitioners and policymakers consumers also seem to be gaining greater awareness of the value and need for sustainable energy practices particularly amid growing public concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change yet even with adequate knowledge of how to save energy and a professed desire to do so many consumers still fail to take noticeable steps towards energy efficiency and conservation there is often a sizeable discrepancy between peoples self reported knowledge values attitudes and intentions and their observable behaviour examples include the well known knowledge action gap and value action gap but neither is household energy consumption driven primarily by financial incentives and the rational pursuit of material interests in fact people sometimes respond in unexpected and undesirable ways to rewards and sanctions intended to shift consumers cost benefit calculus in favour of sustainable behaviours why is this so why is household energy consumption and conservation difficult to predict from either core values or material interests by drawing on critical insights from behavioural economics and psychology we illuminate the key cognitive biases and motivational factors that may explain why energy related behaviour so often fails to align with either the personal values or material interests of consumers understanding these psychological phenomena can make household and community responses to public policy interventions less surprising and in parallel can help us design more cost effective and mass scalable behavioural solutions to encourage renewable and sustainable energy use among consumers

effects of cost related feedback on consumer knowledge and consumption behavior a field experimental approach in 1981 the united states and canada began a series of international field experiments to test the effectiveness of feedback as a way to encourage energy conservation current government studies show energy consumption is again on the rise after several years of decline the research objective was to extend current feedback research by providing information formats and presentation modes that had not been previously tested but did represent realistic public policy and or marketplace options results of the experiment replicated in two u s and two canadian cities provide partial support for feedback as a viable information technology for consumer learning and motivation

analysis of energy end use efficiency policy in spain abstract the implementation of saving measures and energy efficiency entails the need to evaluate achievements in terms of energy saving and spending this paper aims at analysing the effectiveness and economic efficiency of energy saving measures implemented in the energy savings and efficiency action plan 2008 2012 eap4 in spain for 2010 the lack of assessment related to energy savings achieved and public spending allocated by the eap4 justifies the need of this analysis the results show that the transport and building sectors seem to be the most important from the energy efficiency perspective although they did not reach the direct energy savings that were expected there is scope for reduction with the appropriate energy measures for the effectiveness indicator the best performance are achieved by public service agricultural and fisheries and building sectors while in terms of energy efficiency per monetary unit the best results are achieved by transport industry and agriculture sectors authors conclude that it is necessary that central regional and local administrations will get involved in order to get better estimates of the energy savings achieved and thus to affect the design of future energy efficiency measures at the lowest possible cost to the citizens

setting the standard a framework for evaluating the cost effectiveness of building energy standards abstract the adoption rate and stringency of building energy standards in the u s have been increasing since the mid 1990s as a result of the energy policy act mandate of 1992 epact current evidence on the energy savings that accrue from commercial building energy standards is based on engineering simulations which do not account for realized behaviour once a standard is actually adopted this paper uses quasi experimental variation in commercial building energy standard adoptions to estimate their effect on realized electricity consumption and cost effectiveness in states induced by epact to adopt an energy standard where all new nonresidential construction was erected under a commercial standard electricity consumption per service worker is lower by about 12 and total commercial electricity consumption is lower by 10 including early adopters and never adopters to the analysis leads to a downward bias in the treatment effect the realized electricity savings in the epact states represent three quarters of predicted simulated savings and electricity saved in 2010 came at a cost of approximately 7 7 cents per kwh

is energy efficiency capitalized into home prices evidence from three u s cities abstract we test for evidence that energy efficiency features are capitalized into home prices in three u s metropolitan areas using hedonic regressions and multiple matching procedures we find that energy star certification is associated with higher sales prices in two of the markets the research triangle region of north carolina and portland oregon we find that local green certifications in portland and in austin texas are also associated with higher prices and that the estimated price impacts are larger than those from energy star matching on observables proves to be important in some cases reducing the estimated impacts compared with models without matching we calculate the implied energy savings from the estimated premiums and find that in the research triangle market the energy star premiums approximately equal the savings that program is designed to achieve but in portland the premiums are slightly greater than the program s savings due to low energy costs in the region

designing incentive schemes for promoting energy efficient appliances a new methodology and a case study for spain the energy efficiency gap has been high on research and policy agendas for several decades incentive schemes such as subsidies taxes and bonus malus schemes are widely used to promote energy efficient appliances most research however considers instruments in isolation and only rarely in the context of political constraints on instrument use or for alternative policy goals this paper presents a methodology for the optimal design of incentive schemes based on the minimisation of dead weight loss for different policy goals and policy restrictions the use of the methodology is illustrated by designing optimal combinations of taxes and subsidies in spain for three types of appliance dishwashers refrigerators and washing machines the optimal policies are designed subject to different policy goals such as achieving a fixed reduction in emissions or a certain increased market share for efficient appliances and for policy constraints such as budget neutrality the methodology developed here can also be used to evaluate past and current incentive schemes

meta analysis of economics research reporting guidelines meta regression analysis mra can provide objective and comprehensive summaries of economics research their use has grown rapidly over the last few decades to improve transparency and to raise the quality of mra the meta analysis of economics research network maer net has created the below reporting guidelines future meta analyses in economics will be expected to follow these guidelines or give valid reasons why a meta analysis must deviate from them

behavioral economics and energy conservation a systematic review of non price interventions and their causal effects abstract research from economics and psychology suggests that behavioral interventions can be a powerful climate policy instrument this paper provides a systematic review of the existing empirical evidence on non price interventions targeting energy conservation behavior of private households specifically we analyze four nudge like interventions referred to as social comparison commitment devices goal setting and labeling in 44 international studies comprising 105 treatments this paper differs from previous systematic reviews by solely focusing on studies that permit the identification of causal effects we find that all four interventions have the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption of private households yet effect sizes vary immensely we conclude by emphasizing the importance of impact evaluations before rolling out behavioral policy interventions at scale

macroeconomic effects of efficiency policies for energy intensive industries the case of the uk climate change agreements 2000 2010 abstract this paper reports a study modeling the uk climate change agreements ccas and related energy efficiency policies for energy intensive industrial sectors bottom up estimates of the effects of these policies are introduced into the energy demand equations of a top down dynamic econometric model of the uk economy with fifty industrial sectors mdm e3 this allowed estimation of the effects of the reduced energy use for the outputs from the sectors i e the reductions in unit costs of the energy intensive industries on the demand for their outputs both in the uk and in the export markets the model is solved as a counterfactual 2000 2005 and as a projection 2005 2010 in a series of scenarios to allow estimation of the effects of the policies on inflation and growth as well as on overall energy demand and co 2 emissions the system wide final energy reductions is estimated to be 4 2 mtoe or 2 6 of total final demand for energy by 2010 including a rebound effect of 19 with negligible effects on inflation and a slight increase in economic growth through improved international competitiveness

a meta analysis on the price elasticity of energy demand abstract price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio economic and environmental effects of energy policies or other events that influence the price of energy goods since the 1970s a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long term price elasticity estimates for different countries using several models data and estimation techniques yet the literature offers a rather wide range of estimates for the price elasticities of demand for energy this paper quantitatively summarizes the recent but sizeable empirical evidence to facilitate a sounder economic assessment of in some cases policy related energy price changes it uses meta analysis to identify the main factors affecting short and long term elasticity results for energy in general as well as for specific products i e electricity natural gas gasoline diesel and heating oil

china s industrial energy consumption trends and impacts of the top 1000 enterprises energy saving program and the ten key energy saving projects abstract this study analyzes china s industrial energy consumption trends from 1996 to 2010 with a focus on the impact of the top 1000 enterprises energy saving program and the ten key energy saving projects from 1996 to 2010 china s industrial energy consumption increased by 134 even as the industrial economic energy intensity decreased by 46 decomposition analysis shows that the production effect was the dominant cause of the rapid growth in industrial energy consumption while the efficiency effect was the major factor slowing the growth of industrial energy consumption the structural effect had a relatively small and fluctuating influence analysis shows the strong association of industrial energy consumption with the growth of china s economy and changing energy policies an assessment of the top 1000 enterprises energy saving program and the ten key energy saving projects indicates that the economic energy intensity of major energy intensive industrial sub sectors as well as the physical energy intensity of major energy intensive industrial products decreased significantly during china s 11th five year plan fyp period 2006 2010 this study also shows the importance and challenge of realizing structural change toward less energy intensive activities in china during the 12th fyp period 2011 2015

the value of domestic building energy efficiency evidence from ireland abstract following the transposition of the eu energy performance of buildings directive into irish law all properties offered for sale or to let in ireland are obliged to have an energy efficiency rating this paper analyses the effect of energy efficiency ratings on the sale and rental prices of properties in the republic of ireland using the heckman selection technique we model the decision to advertise the energy efficiency rating of a property and the effect of energy efficiency ratings on property values our results show that energy efficiency has a positive effect on both the sales and rental prices of properties and that the effect is significantly stronger in the sales segment of the property market we also analyse the effect of energy efficiency across different market conditions and we find that the effect of the energy rating is generally stronger where market conditions are worse

self selection bias in the evaluation of voluntary energy conservation programs while voluntary energy conservation programs have been extensively promoted by electric utilities and public utility commissions their effectiveness has been insufficiently critiqued this paper contributes to the growing evaluation of such programs by measuring the net energy savings directly attributable to an actual set of programs the analysis explicitly corrects for the self selection bias that can arise in program evaluation the correction is found to be important traditional evaluation methods are subject to considerable bias correcting for this bias the amount of program induced energy savings is found to be considerably less than traditionally believed copyright 1988 by mit press

meta regression analysis a quantitative method of literature surveys abstract pedagogically literature reviews are instrumental they summarize the large literature written on a particular topic give coherence to the complex often disparate views expressed about an issue and serve as a springboard for new ideas however literature surveys rarely establish anything approximating unanimous consensus ironically this is just as true for the empirical economic literature to harmonize this dissonance we offer a quantitative methodology for reviewing the empirical economic literature meta regression analysis mra is the regression analysis of regression analyses mra tends to objectify the review process it studies the processes that produce empirical economic results as though they were any other social scientific phenomenon mra provides a framework for replication and offers a sensitivity analysis for model specification in this brief essay we propose a new method of reviewing economic literature mra and discuss its potential

communication energy efficiency and economic fallacies abstract the sharpening energy efficiency debate has revived claims that the apparent savings from using more efficient technologies would be largely offset by the macroeconomic response the tendency to use more energy services because they are made cheaper when energy price or availability constrains demand this is correct in more normal circumstances it may be true for efficiency changes which occur as part of general economic trends but not for policy driven measures aimed at bringing more efficient technologies into imperfect markets in such cases there will usually be real net energy savings only slightly smaller than those suggested by a simple engineering analysis and clear economic benefits

are all economic facts greatly exaggerated theory competition and selectivity there is growing concern and mounting evidence of selectivity in empirical economics most empirical economic literatures have a truncated distribution of results the aim of this paper is to explore the link between publication selectivity and theory contests this link is confirmed through the analysis of 87 distinct empirical economics literatures involving more than three and a half thousand separate empirical studies using objective measures of both selectivity and contests our meta meta analysis shows that publication selection is widespread but not universal it distorts scientific inference with potentially adverse effects on policy making but competition and debate between rival theories reduces this selectivity and thereby improves economic inference

doing well by doing good green office buildings this paper provides the first credible evidence on the economic value of the certification of green buildings in the commercial sector value derived from impersonal market transactions rather than engineering estimates we match publicly available information on the addresses of energy star and leed rated office buildings to a commercial data source detailing the characteristics of u s office buildings and their rental rates we analyze the micro data on 694 certified green buildings and on 7489 other office buildings located within a quarter mile of the certified buildings we find systematic evidence that rents for green offices are about two percent higher than rents for comparable buildings located nearby effective rents i e rents adjusted for the occupancy levels in office buildings are about six percent higher in green buildings than in comparable office buildings nearby at prevailing capitalization rates conversion of the average non green building to an equivalent green building would add more than 5 million in market value these results are robust to the statistical models employed

reducing household electricity demand through smart metering the role of improved information about energy saving abstract the international roll out of residential smart meters has increased considerably in recent years the improved consumption feedback provided and in particular the installation of in house displays has been shown to significantly reduce residential electricity demand in some international trials this paper attempts to uncover the underlying drivers of such information led reductions by exploring two research questions first does feedback improve a household s stock of information about potential energy reducing behaviours and second do improvements in such information help explain the demand reductions associated with the introduction of smart metering and time of use tariffs data is from a randomised controlled smart metering trial ireland which also collected extensive information on household attitudes towards energy conservation and self reported stocks of information related to energy saving as with previous results in ireland we find that participation in a smart metering programme with time of use tariffs significantly reduces demand although treated households also increased their self reported energy reducing information such improvements are not correlated with demand reductions in the short run given this result it is possible that feedback and other information provided in the context of smart metering are mainly effective in reducing and shifting demand because they act as a reminder and motivator

do customer information programs reduce household electricity demand the irish program abstract we study empirically the effectiveness of a customer information program to decrease energy demand by increasing efficient electricity use this demand side management dsm program aims at reducing the lack of information on the customers side that is documented in related literature we study the irish dsm program which is particularly well suited to investigate this issue as strategic behavior is ruled out in this setting for both customers and suppliers on the customers side because information programs allow only for a limited substitution of own effort on the producers side because the specificity of the irish case left no room for strategic behavior we find that providing customers with information reduced overall electricity demand by roughly 7 as well as reducing demand fluctuations over the year further we find that the dsm program had a larger impact upon long run demand with consumers short run demand behavior not being changed significantly

economic efficiency v energy efficiency do model conservation standards make good sense abstract the incremental market value of higher thermal efficiency standards in new houses and the resulting energy savings are estimated using linear regression techniques based on the empirical findings a homebuyer discount rate is calculated and cost effectiveness tests are performed the findings indicate that the real estate market operates efficiently in capitalizing the value of energy savings into sale prices it appears that under current pricing mechanisms the thermal performance improvements provide net benefits to the homebuyer and to the sponsoring utility

smart meter devices and the effect of feedback on residential electricity consumption evidence from a natural experiment in northern ireland abstract using a unique set of data and exploiting a large scale natural experiment we estimate the effect of real time usage information on residential electricity consumption in northern ireland starting in april 2002 the utility replaced prepayment meters with advanced meters that allow the consumer to track usage in real time we rely on this event account for the endogeneity of price and payment plan with consumption through a plan selection correction term and find that the provision of information is associated with a decline in electricity consumption of 11 17 we find that the reduction is robust to different specifications selection bias correction methods and subsamples of the original data the advanced metering program delivers reasonably cost effective reductions in carbon dioxide emissions even under the most conservative usage reduction scenarios

energy performance ratings and house prices in wales an empirical study this paper investigates the effect of energy performance certificate epc ratings on residential prices in wales drawing on a sample of approximately 192 000 transactions the capitalisation of energy efficiency ratings into house prices is investigated using two approaches the first adopts a cross sectional framework to investigate the effect of epc rating on price the second approach applies a repeat sales methodology to investigate the impact of epc rating on house price appreciation statistically significant positive price premiums are estimated for dwellings in epc bands a b 12 8 and c 3 5 compared to houses in band d for dwellings in band e 3 6 and f 6 5 there are statistically significant discounts such effects may not be the result of energy performance alone in addition to energy cost differences the price effect may be due to additional benefits of energy efficient features an analysis of the private rental segment reveals that in contrast to the general market low epc rated dwellings were not traded at a significant discount this suggests different implicit prices of potential energy savings for landlords and owner occupiers

price premium for high efficiency refrigerators and calculation of price elasticities for close substitutes a methodology using hedonic pricing and demand systems this article uses the hedonic pricing method to estimate the price premium paid for the highest energy efficiency label a in the refrigerators market of the basque autonomous community spain the estimated figure is 8 9 of the final price or about 60 euro which represents one third of the energy savings that a consumer gets during the lifetime of a refrigerator with the highest energy efficiency label this figure is then combined with the linear version of the almost ideal demand system la aids to obtain own and cross price elasticities of demand the information presented here is useful for policy design and analysis the results indicate that the demand for refrigerators with the highest energy efficiency label is highly sensitive to price variations

the price of energy efficiency in the spanish housing market the housing sector is a substantial consumer of energy and therefore a focus for energy savings efforts the energy performance certificate epc is the main eu policy to improve the energy performance of buildings following the implementation of the epc directive into spanish law from june 2013 all properties offered for sale or rented out in spain are required to have an epc given that this is a recently introduced regulation unlike other european housing markets the spanish one lacks market data on energy efficiency ee labels and their impact on housing price in order to overcome this gap we determine the ee ratings of a sample of 1 507 homes across spain on the basis of information collected previously through household surveys this information allowed us to answer the question of whether or not and to what extent spanish housing markets capitalise the value of ee we apply the hedonic price technique and observe that more energy efficient dwellings meaning higher ee rating have a price premium between 5 4 and 9 8 compared to those with the same characteristics but lower ee level

how much energy do building energy codes save evidence from california houses regulations governing the energy efficiency of new buildings have become a cornerstone of us environmental policy california enacted the first such codes in 1978 and has tightened them every few years since i evaluate the resulting energy savings three ways comparing energy used by houses constructed under different standards controlling for building and occupant characteristics examining how energy use varies with outdoor temperatures and comparing energy used by houses of different vintages in california to that same difference in other states all three approaches yield estimated energy savings significantly short of those projected when the regulations were enacted

energy efficiency economics and policy energy efficiency and conservation are major factors in the reduction of the environmental impact of the energy sector particularly with regard to climate change energy efficiency also contributes to reducing external dependence and vulnerabilities in the energy domain in this paper we discuss the factors that influence energy efficiency and conservation decisions and the most appropriate policies for their promotion although not all public policies seem justified we argue that specific policies for promoting energy conservation may be required preferably based on economic instruments or on the provision of information to consumers

estimating the net implicit price of energy efficient building codes on u s households abstract requiring energy efficiency building codes raises housing prices or the monthly rental equivalent but theoretically this effect might be fully offset by reductions in household energy expenditures whether there is a full compensating differential or how much households are paying implicitly is an empirical question this study estimates the net implicit price of energy efficient buildings codes iecc 2003 through iecc 2006 for american households using sample data from the american community survey 2007 a heteroskedastic seemingly unrelated estimation approach is used to estimate hedonic price house rent and energy expenditure models the value of energy efficiency building codes is capitalized into housing rents which are estimated to increase by 23 25 percent with the codes however the codes provide households a compensating differential of about a 6 47 percent reduction about 7 71 in monthly energy expenditure results indicate that the mean household net implicit price for these codes is about 140 87 per month in 2006 dollars 163 19 in 2013 dollars however this estimated price is shown to vary significantly by region energy type and the rent gradient

knowledge is less power experimental evidence from residential energy use abstract imperfect information about product attributes inhibits efficiency in many choice settings but can be overcome by providing simple low cost information we use a randomized control trial to test the effect of high frequency information about residential electricity usage on the price elasticity of demand informed households are three standard deviations more responsive to temporary price increases an effect that is not attributable to price salience conservation extends beyond pricing events in the short and medium run providing evidence of habit formation and implying that the intervention leads to greenhouse gas abatement survey evidence suggests that information facilitates learning jel d12 d83 l11 l94 q41 q54

the effects of the corporate average fuel efficiency standards in the us this paper examines the effects of the corporate average fuel economy standards cafe on automobile sales prices and fuel consumption first a discrete choice model of automobile demand and a continuous model of vehicle utilization are estimated using micro data from the consumer expenditure survey for 1984 1990 next the demand side model is combined with a model of oligopoly and product differentiation on the supply side with these elements in place the effects of the cafe regulation are assessed through simulations and compared to the effects of alternative policy instruments such as an increase in gasoline tax

effects of feedback on residential electricity demand findings from a field trial in austria abstract this paper analyzes the effects of providing feedback on electricity consumption in a field trial involving more than 1500 households in linz austria about half of these households received feedback together with information about electricity saving measures pilot group while the remaining households served as a control group participation in the pilot group was random but households were able to choose between two types of feedback access to a web portal or written feedback by post results from cross section ols regression suggest that feedback provided to the pilot group corresponds with electricity savings of around 4 5 for the average household our results from quantile regressions imply that for households in the 30th to the 70th percentile of electricity consumption feedback on electricity consumption is statistically significant and effects are highest in absolute terms and as a share of electricity consumption for percentiles below or above this range feedback appears to have no effect finally controlling for a potential endogeneity bias induced by non random participation in the feedback type groups we find no difference in the effects of feedback provided via the web portal and by post

the influences of financial and non financial factors on energy saving behaviour a field experiment in japan abstract this study examines the influences of financial and non financial factors on electricity conservation behaviour a random sample of 236 japanese households participated in the field experiment and the participants were offered two interventions such as monetary rewards depending on their reduction in electricity consumption and comparative feedback the average saving rates of the i reward intervention group 5 9 and the ii reward with comparative feedback group 8 2 are statistically larger than those of the iii control group 1 7 our study demonstrates the following first our econometric analysis confirmed a significant response by households to financial incentives but a more inconclusive response to the treatment that provided non financial additional information second we found a positive influence of treatment externalities across time and households on energy saving third there is a heterogeneous treatment effect in the reward intervention group with the households having a high new ecological paradigm nep score being more likely to respond to the reward programme and save electricity than those that do not finally and most interestingly differences in responses to the questionnaire before and after the experiment suggest that the participants had underestimated the marginal costs of saving electricity before they actually started to do so

an ex ante evaluation of a white certificates scheme in the netherlands a case study for the household sector increased efficiency of energy demand is generally recognized as a very cost effective strategy to reduce energy requirements and the related environmental impacts e g the greenhouse effect in order to improve energy efficiency the use of innovative market mechanisms such as the white certificates whc has been proposed the basic idea underlying this policy instrument is that specific energy saving targets are set for energy suppliers or energy distributors these requirements must be fulfilled in a predefined time frame the focus of this paper is on the effect on energy efficiency improvement on the behavior of the end consumers and the market of energy efficiency measures furthermore we study the possible effects of whc in the netherlands by means of a theoretical analysis and an empirical bottom up model we compare concrete energy efficient technologies in terms of cost effectiveness and energy efficiency improvement in combination with existing dutch policies for energy efficiency improvement in the built environment the contribution of this innovative scheme could enhance the accomplishment of energy efficiency targets in this paper two packages of energy saving measures of a whc scheme are studied for dutch households the costs of these technologies are estimated through the use of different discount rates which imply overcoming of the market barriers through the use of the whc a scheme that includes all available technologies as flexible options appears as a realistic solution and can generate cost effectively up to 180 pj primary energy savings and 4550 m cumulative net savings in the year 2020 at a discount rate of 5 under the precondition that the policy and administrative costs can be kept low

nudges in the marketplace the response of household electricity consumption to information and monetary incentives this paper provides field evidence from india examining changes in electricity consumption in response to various behavioral interventions i study the impact of i weekly reports with peer comparisons of electricity use ii reports augmented with monetary incentives to reduce consumption and iii price variation i estimate consumption changes using a randomized control trial in conjunction with a quasi experiment households provided reports alone reduced summer season consumption by 7 percent price elasticity identified from cross sectional and time series variation was estimated at 0 56 against this benchmark the impact of peer comparisons alone was equivalent to increasing tariffs by about 12 5 percent counter intuitively when weekly reports were augmented with monetary incentives rewarding electricity conservation households no longer reduced consumption households receiving reports also show higher price elasticity relative to controls these results provide new evidence identifying the response of developing country consumers to behavioral interventions while examining the interaction of prices incentives and information

energy efficiency and household behavior the rebound effect in the residential sector over the years various efficiency policies have been designed and implemented to reduce residential energy consumption however it is very common that the policy expectations that are based upon engineering calculations do not come true the widely accepted explanation for the gap between expectation and the realization is the change of household behavior as the energy efficiency gains change the perceived cost of energy services and thereby generate shifts in consumption patterns the rebound effect the real controversy about the rebound effect lies in the identification of its magnitude in this paper we estimate the rebound effect in residential energy consumption by comparing the actual gas consumption levels with the ex ante predictions within a sample of well over 600 000 dutch dwellings and households we find a significant deviation between the engineering predictions and the households actual energy consumption a difference which varies by ownership wealth income and the actual gas use intensity our results show a rebound effect of 26 7 percent among home owners and 41 3 percent among tenants moreover we find that these effects are greatest among the lower income wealth groups and among households that tend to use more gas than average

energy performance certificates informing the informed or the indifferent energy performance certificates epcs are intended to provide tenants and buyers with reliable information about the energy performance of buildings as improved energy performance may increase building sale prices and rents the epcs are supposed to generate incentives for owners to invest in energy efficiency the empirical evidence for a price premium associated with energy labels is however inconclusive and partly contradictory by utilizing data from the norwegian housing market we reproduce the positive price premium effect found in earlier studies however when we check these results by taking advantage of the fact that the introduction of a mandatory energy certification system represents a quasi natural experiment we find no evidence of a price premium on the contrary we present evidence that there is no effect of the energy label itself

the economics of green building we analyze the economics of green building finding that recent increases in the supply of green buildings and the volatility in prop erty markets have not affected the returns to green buildings we then analyze a large cross section of office buildings demonstrating that eco nomic returns to energy efficient buildings are substantial finally we relate the economic premiums for green buildings to their relative effi ciency in energy use the attributes rated for thermal efficiency as well as sustainability contribute to premiums in rents and asset values among green buildings increased energy efficiency is fully capitalized into rents and asset values

evidence on ppp for selected asian countries from a panel cointegration test with structural breaks the goal of this article is to examine evidence for purchasing power parity ppp for a panel of asian countries namely malaysia thailand india pakistan sri lanka and the philippines our main contribution is that for the first time in this literature we use a panel cointegration test developed by westerlund 2006 which allows us to incorporate multiple structural breaks we find that using gregory and hansen s 1996 residual based test for cointegration and pedroni s 1999 panel cointegration test without structural breaks provide weak evidence of cointegration between nominal exchange rates vis a vis the us dollar and relative prices however when we use the lagrange multiplier panel structural break cointegration test we find strong evidence of panel cointegration providing evidence for ppp

returns to residential energy efficiency and conservation measures a field experiment abstract residential energy conservation is a key component of contemporary energy and climate change policy in the us and elsewhere comparisons of the relative effectiveness of measures aimed at reducing residential energy consumption are made challenging however by the endogeneity of technology and energy use decisions in this paper we describe a novel small scale field experiment that uses randomized treatments to estimate the returns to three types of energy conservation measures in institutionally owned homes the results from the experiment indicate considerable reductions in natural gas consumption associated with the installation of attic insulation and the provision of incentives for conservation the results are supported by observations of ambient indoor temperature data which show that households receiving incentives significantly reduce their temperature settings especially when coupled with access to a programmable thermostat the study will ideally provide guidance for institutions and communities considering energy efficiency measures and for future researchers designing randomized experiments to study residential energy use

supply demand and the value of green buildings attention to sustainability and energy efficiency rating schemes in the commercial property sector has increased rapidly during the past decade in the uk commercial properties have been certified under the breeam rating scheme since 1999 offering fertile ground to investigate the economic dynamics of green certification in the commercial property market this paper documents that over the 2000 09 period the expanding supply of green buildings within a given london neighbourhood had a positive impact on average rents and prices but reduced rents and prices for environmentally certified real estate the results suggest that there is a gentrification effect from green buildings however each additional green building decreases the marginal effect of certification in the rental and transaction markets by 2 per cent and 5 per cent respectively in addition controlling for lease contract features like contract length and the rent free period modifies the impact of environmental certification on

the impact of energy labels and accessibility on office rents abstract energy consumption in the commercial property sector offers an important opportunity for conserving resources in this study we evaluate the financial implications of two elements of sustainability energy efficiency and accessibility in the market for commercial real estate an empirical analysis of some 1100 leasing transactions in the netherlands over the 2005 2010 period shows that buildings designated as inefficient with an eu energy performance certificate d or worse command rental levels that are some 6 5 percent lower as compared to energy efficient but otherwise similar buildings labeled a b or c furthermore this study shows that office buildings in multi functional areas with access to public transport and facilities achieve rental premiums over mono functional office districts for policymakers the results documented in this paper provide an indication on the effectiveness of the eu energy performance certificate as a market signal in the commercial property sector the findings documented here are also relevant for investors in european office markets as the importance of energy efficiency and locational diversification is bound to increase following stricter environmental regulation and changing tenant preferences

incommensurate resources not just more of the same abstract the pricing literature is replete with research that focuses on how consumers respond to sales promotions when both the reference level and the change are expressed in dollar terms i e discounts the psychophysics of pricing suggests that changes in monetary magnitude are not based on their absolute level but rather on their deviation from some reference level or how the change is framed often however a promotion is presented in nonmonetary terms e g a premium when two resources are delivered simultaneously but in different currencies e g receive a free razor with the purchase of a can of shaving cream the marginal value of the nonmonetary incremental benefit may be difficult to evaluate in relation to the focal product or its price therefore the value of the premium may be less likely than a comparable discount to be viewed in a relative sense and thus less likely to suffer from diminishing marginal returns this research explores how people often fail to exhibit the sam

information strategies for energy conservation a field experiment in india abstract little is known about the effectiveness of information strategies on energy conservation in developing countries in this study we conduct a field experiment in an apartment complex in india to test how information about electricity usage impacts the electricity consumption of urban middle class households our results based on fifteen minute electricity readings over an academic year show that non monetary messages that framed electricity consumption in terms of environmental and health impacts were more effective than messages emphasizing the monetary savings of reducing electricity consumption households in the environmental health group accessed the online energy monitoring dashboard more frequently and reduced their electricity usage by 18 4 relative to the control group households in the monetary group did not significantly alter their usage these results about revealed preferences are contrasted with stated preferences disclosed in a survey of urban indians who describe money not health as the main motivation for energy conservation our findings have important implications for the development non monetary strategies for energy conservation in developing countries

public praise vs private pay effects of rewards on energy conservation in the workplace any solution to rising levels of co2 depends on human behavior one common approach to changing human behavior is rewarding desired behavior because financial incentives often have side effects that diminish efficacy we predict that social rewards are more effective because they invoke adherence to descriptive and injunctive social norms we investigated this by measuring electricity use for 13 weeks at a dutch firm each week employees were rewarded for conserving energy they either received monetary rewards 0 5 or social rewards grade points with a descriptive comment rewards were either private or public in both the short and long term public rewards outperformed private rewards and social rewards outperformed monetary rewards this suggests that private monetary rewards although popular may be ineffective instead public social rewards may be a more promising approach to stimulating energy conservation we argue that this approach should be considered more frequently by policy makers

ex post assessment of china s industrial energy efficiency policies during the eleventh five year plan abstract china implemented a package of policies during the 11th five year plan 2006 2010 to improve industrial energy efficiency this assessment provides a methodology that establishes a causal relationship between policy implementation and energy conservation effects to enhance the confidence in the research findings this assessment applies two distinctive and independent approaches one top down and the other bottom up this assessment finds that industrial energy efficiency policies collectively achieved energy savings of 322 mtce 9 4 ej against the baseline scenario this accounted for 59 of the sector s total energy savings from 2006 to 2010 the remaining energy savings were realised through autonomous technology improvement 33 and sector level structural shift 8 correspondingly cumulative avoided co2 emissions realised through energy efficiency policies amounted to 760 million tons this assessment concludes that industrial energy efficiency policies were effective in realising energy conservation targets but energy conservation effects were not achieved in a cost effective way command and control measures were dominantly implemented with economic incentives and informational measures taking a complementary role while market based instruments did not play an important role as china is planning on implementing a nationwide emissions trading scheme special attention needs to be paid to policy interaction and coordination

income elasticity of gasoline demand a meta analysis abstract in this paper we quantitatively synthesize empirical estimates of the income elasticity of gasoline demand reported in previous studies the studies cover many countries and report a mean elasticity of 0 28 for the short run and 0 66 for the long run we show however that these mean estimates are biased upwards because of publication bias the tendency to suppress negative and insignificant estimates of the elasticity we employ mixed effects multilevel meta regression to filter out publication bias from the literature our results suggest that the income elasticity of gasoline demand is on average much smaller than reported in previous surveys the mean corrected for publication bias is 0 1 for the short run and 0 23 for the long run

saving power to conserve your reputation the effectiveness of private versus public information environmental damage is often an unseen byproduct of other activities disclosing environmental impact privately to consumers can reduce the costs and or increase the moral benefits of conservation behaviors while publicly disclosing such information can provide an additional motivation for conservation cultivating a green reputation in a unique field experiment in the residence halls at the university of california los angeles we test the efficacy of detailed private and public information on electricity conservation private information was given through real time appliance level feedback and social norms over usage and public information was given through a publicly visible conservation rating our analysis is based on 7 120 daily observations about energy use from heating and cooling lights and plug load for 66 rooms collected over an academic year our results suggest that while private information alone was ineffective public information combined with private information motivated a 20 percent reduction in electricity consumption achieved through lower use of heating and cooling public information was particularly effective for above median energy users

persistence of the effects of providing feedback alongside smart metering devices on household electricity demand abstract using large sample high temporal resolution data from a smart metering field trial we econometrically estimate the effects of providing feedback in addition to smart metering devices we compare consumption levels and patterns between a pilot group that received feedback in addition to smart metering devices and a control group with only smart metering devices we investigate in particular the persistence of the effects and whether the effects differ between periods of high and low household occupancy i e between morning and evening periods and between weekdays and weekend days the findings show that feedback is effective leading to about 5 electricity consumption reduction that is persistent over an eleven month period furthermore our results show that this reduction affects both low and high occupancy periods suggesting that feedback is associated with rather permanent changes in habitual behavior and or investments in energy efficient technologies

producer and consumer responses to green housing labels we find green labels increase residential property values by an average of 5 this premium varies by label stringency and across market segments builders respond to the stringency of labels by strategically incorporating green features to achieve higher ratings this strategy seems reasonable as there is no market premium for green features that lead to scores between label rating cutoff values these results raise important questions as to how green label policies should be designed in order to foster the supply of green features gradations of green attributes are influential particularly for highly rated homes the most stringent labels have the greatest role at the high price end of the market jel q20 q40 r31

energy conservation nudges and environmentalist ideology evidence from a randomized residential electricity field experiment nudges are being widely promoted to encourage energy conservation we show that while the electricity conservation nudge of providing feedback to households on own and peers home electricity usage works with liberals it can backfire with conservatives our regression estimates predict that a democratic household that pays for electricity from renewable sources that donates to environmental groups and that lives in a liberal neighborhood reduces its consumption by 3 percent in response to this nudge a republican household that does not pay for electricity from renewable sources and that does not donate to environmental groups increases its consumption by 1 percent

demand side management by electric utilities in switzerland analyzing its impact on residential electricity demand abstract in this paper we use panel data from a survey conducted on 30 utilities in switzerland to estimate the impact of demand side management dsm activity on residential electricity demand using the variation in dsm activity within utilities and across utilities over time we identify the impact of dsm programs and find that their presence reduces per customer residential electricity consumption by around 5 if we consider monetary spending the effect of a 10 increase in dsm spending causes a 0 14 reduction in per customer residential electricity consumption the cost of saving a kilowatt hour is around 0 04chf while the average cost of producing and distributing electricity in switzerland is around 0 18chf per kilowatt hour we conclude that current dsm practices in switzerland have a statistically significant effect on reducing the demand for residential electricity

a harmonized calculation model for transforming eu bottom up energy efficiency indicators into empirical estimates of policy impacts abstract this study is an impact analysis of european union eu energy efficiency policy that employs both top down energy consumption data and bottom up energy efficiency statistics or indicators as such it may be considered a contribution to the effort called for in the eu s 2006 energy services directive esd to develop a harmonized calculation model although this study does not estimate the realized savings from individual policy measures it does provide estimates of realized energy savings for energy efficiency policy measures in aggregate using fixed effects panel models the annual cumulative savings in 2011 of combined household and manufacturing sector electricity and natural gas usage attributed to eu energy efficiency policies since 2000 is estimated to be 1136 pj the savings attributed to energy efficiency policies since 2006 is estimated to be 807 pj or the equivalent of 5 6 of 2011 eu energy consumption as well as its contribution to energy efficiency policy analysis this study adds to the development of methods that can improve the quality of information provided by standardized energy efficiency and sustainable resource indexes

the impacts of energy efficiency policies meta analysis abstract this paper attempts to quantitatively summarize the existing empirical evidence on the effects of energy efficiency policies on energy demand and on the price of associated durable goods as well as to identify the main factors that systematically affect the estimated impacts to this end a meta regression analysis of the effects of energy efficiency policies is carried out on the basis of an extensive review of the existing literature selecting those studies that analyze the impact of energy efficiency policies with respect to a business as usual setting taking into account the econometric problems associated with this type of analysis intra class correlation cross sectional dependence publication bias in pursuit of robust outcomes the results show that the studies analyzing the effects of energy efficiency policies estimate a significant impact of these policies on energy demand 10 5 8 8 and the price of related durable goods 7 9 6 the main factors that influence results are the policy instrument the targeted sector the type of country the analyzed period the consideration of free riders and the type of analysis data and publication energy demand and the sector and analyzed period price of durables

consumer response to continuous display electricity use monitors in a time of use pricing experiment continuous display electricity use monitors provide more comprehensive electricity cost information than previously considered initiatives this study analyzes the effect of monitor provided information on consumers monthly peak period off peak period and total electricity consumption using an ancova framework results indicate that monitoring did not induce conservation but did significantly contribute to shifting electricity use from peak to off peak periods