general equilibrium rebound from energy efficiency innovation abstract energy efficiency improvements rebound when economic responses undercut their direct energy savings i show that general equilibrium channels typically amplify rebound by making consumption goods cheaper but typically dampen rebound by increasing demand for non energy inputs to production and by changing the size of the energy supply sector improvements in the efficiency of the energy supply sector generate especially large rebound because they make energy cheaper in all other sectors quantitatively general equilibrium channels reduce rebound in u s consumption good sectors from 39 to 28 but increase rebound in the energy supply sector from 42 to 80

u s household energy consumption and intensity trends a decomposition approach concerns over impacts from u s energy use on the environment the economy and the national security warrant an understanding of the key drivers of energy consumption this paper focuses on decomposing u s household energy consumption changes into several factors that have affected its growth the interval analyzed is based on household surveys conducted by the u s energy information administration from 1980 through 2005 drivers of total household energy consumption total household electricity consumption and natural gas use for space heating are analyzed and contrasted while not definitive sub period analyses split at 1990 show greater reductions in energy intensity in the later sub period and provide prima fascia evidence of the efficacy of u s efforts to promote energy efficiency through various standards and programs

california energy efficiency lessons for the rest of the world or not abstract since the 1970s california s residential electricity consumption per capita has stopped increasing while other states electricity use continued to grow steadily what accounts for california s apparent savings some credit the strict energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances enacted by california in the mid 1970s they argue that the growing gap between california and other states demonstrates that other states and countries could replicate california s gains by adopting california style regulations and that california should build on its own success by tightening its standards further skeptics might point to three long run trends that differentiate california s electricity demand from other states 1 shifting of the u s population toward warmer climates of the south and west 2 relatively small income elasticity of energy demand in california s temperate climate and 3 evolving differences between the demographics of households in california and other states today differences in climate and demographics account for almost 90 percent of the difference between california s and other states residential electricity use that difference thus provides no lessons for other states or countries considering adopting or tightening their own energy efficiency standards

energy efficiency of residential buildings in the european union an exploratory analysis of cross country consumption patterns abstract despite a common eu directive on energy efficiency in residential buildings levels of energy efficiency differ across european countries this article analyses these differences and investigates the effectiveness of different energy efficiency policies in place in those countries we firstly use panel data methods to explain average yearly energy consumption per dwelling and country by observable characteristics such as climatic conditions energy prices income and floor area we then use the unexplained variation by sorting between country differences as well as plotting within country changes over time to identify better performing countries these countries are analysed qualitatively in a second step we conduct expert interviews and examine the legal rules regarding building energy efficiency based on our exploratory analysis we draw a number of preliminary conclusions first we suggest that regulatory standards in conjunction with increased construction activity can be effective in the long run second the results suggest that carbon taxation represents an effective means for energy efficiency in this regard the scope of the carbon tax plays a crucial role we find evidence that a tax of 30 and a tax of 120 per ton of co2 cause markedly different reductions in energy consumption

measuring the energy savings from home improvement investments evidence from monthly billing data an important factor driving energy policy over the past two decades has been the energy paradox the perception that consumers apply unreasonably high hurdle rates to energy saving investments we explore one possible explanation for this apparent puzzle that realized returns fall short of the returns promised by engineers and product manufacturers using a unique data set we find that the realized return to attic insulation is statistically significant but the median estimate 9 7 is almost identical to a discount rate for this investment implied by a capm analysis we conclude that the case for the energy paradox is weaker than has previously been believed

building vintage and electricity use old homes use less electricity in hot weather abstract this paper studies whether electricity use in newer or older residential buildings rises more in response to high temperature in a region of southern california peak electricity demand occurs at the highest temperatures which are predicted to increase due to climate change understanding how newer buildings differ from older buildings improves forecasts of how peak electricity use will grow over time newer buildings are subject to stricter building energy codes but are larger and more likely to have air conditioning hence the cumulative effect is ambiguous this paper combines four large datasets of building and household characteristics weather data and utility data to estimate the electricity temperature response of different building vintages estimation results show that new buildings 1970 2000 have a statistically significantly higher temperature response i e use more electricity than old buildings pre1970 auxiliary regressions with controls for tiered electricity prices number of bedrooms income square footage central air conditioning ownership and type of residential structure partially decompose the effect though california has had extensive energy efficiency building standards that by themselves would lower temperature response for new buildings the cumulative effect of new buildings is an increase in temperature response as new buildings are added aggregate temperature response is predicted to increase

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

three little known and yet still significant contributions of lloyd shapley abstract this paper makes three corrections in the literature by restating three little known and yet still significant contributions of lloyd shapley 1 shapley 1955 not gillies 1953 gillies 1959 first defined the core solution 2 shapley 1956 first defined and studied the noncooperative solution in multiobjective games and 3 shapley 1987 revealed a fundamental error in existing noncooperative game theory

dynamic incentives of environmental regulations the effects of alternative policy instruments on technology diffusion abstract we develop a framework for comparing empirically the effects of alternative environmental policy instruments on the diffusion of new technology market based and command and control approaches can he quantitatively compared by estimating the economic penalty that firms through their actions reveal to be associated with violation of standards in the context of concerns about global climate change we empirically examine the likely effects of pigouvian taxes technology adoption subsidies and technology standards we employ state level data on the diffusion of thermal insulation in new home construction comparing the effects of energy prices insulation cost and building codes

asymmetric information in residential rental markets implications for the energy efficiency gap abstract this paper explores whether energy cost information asymmetries exist between landlords and tenants by exploiting variation in which party pays for energy because tenants are always fully informed about their total housing costs in the landlord pay regime the effect of energy cost changes on tenant turnover rents and efficiency investment should differ between the two payment regimes under asymmetric information but not symmetric information using energy cost variation in the form of changes in relative heating fuel prices i find evidence that tenants are uninformed about energy costs this results in higher energy expenditures for tenants and implies that information campaigns or efficiency standards may improve market outcomes

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

assimilation changes in cohort quality and the earnings of immigrants this paper reexamines the empirical basis for two facts that seem to be found in most cross section studies of immigrant earnings 1 the earnings of immigrants grow rapidly as they assimilate into the united states and 2 this rapid growth leads to many immigrants overtaking the earnings of the natives within 10 15 years after immigration using the 1970 and 1980 u s censuses this paper studies the earnings growth experienced by specific immigrant cohorts during the period 1970 80 it is found that within cohort growth is significantly smaller than the growth predicted by cross section regressions for most immigrant groups this differential is consistent with the hypothesis that there has been a secular decline in the quality of immigrants admitted to the united states

do energy efficiency investments deliver evidence from the weatherization assistance program a growing number of policies and programs aim to increase investment in energy efficiency because conventional wisdom suggests that people fail to take up these investments even though they have positive private returns and generate environmental benefits many explanations for this energy efficiency gap have been put forward but there has been surprisingly little field testing of whether the conventional wisdom is correct this article reports on the results of an experimental evaluation of the nation s largest residential energy efficiency program the weatherization assistance program conducted on a sample of approximately 30 000 households in michigan the findings suggest that the upfront investment costs are about twice the actual energy savings furthermore the model projected savings are more than three times the actual savings although this might be attributed to the rebound effect when demand for energy end uses increases as a result of greater efficiency the article fails to find evidence of significantly higher indoor temperatures at weatherized homes even when accounting for the broader societal benefits derived from emissions reductions the costs still substantially outweigh the benefits the average rate of return is approximately 7 8 annually

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

sources of growth a reconsideration and general equilibrium application to indonesia abstract a computable general equilibrium cge model of indonesia is developed in which total factor productivity growth in manufacturing is endogenously determined productivity growth is conceptualized as human and social capital accumulation mediated by learning and institutional development stimulated by the trade regime these factors are modeled as externalities determined by export growth and capital equipment imports the model is used to analyze the gains deriving from the externalities and subsidies that amplify their effects leading indonesia to acquire korea like institutions sooner the growth and fiscal implications of such counterfactual simulations are analyzed in a realistic general equilibrium framework with a fully articulated public sector

shapley s conjecture on the cores of abstract market games abstract shapley 1955 introduced the model of an abstract market game as a generalization of the assignment game model among several other models he conjectured that abstract market games possess non empty cores we analyze properties of abstract market games and provide a proof of this conjecture for cases with four or fewer players we show by example that in general the structure of an abstract market game is not strong enough to guarantee the nonemptiness of the core we establish supplemental conditions for the conjecture to hold our supplemental conditions are satisfied by the assignment games and abstract market games with one side consisting of a single player as with package auction games in ausubel and milgrom 2002

multi item auctions a collection of items is to be distributed among several bidders and each bidder is to receive at most one item assuming that the bidders place some monetary value on each of the items it has been shown that there is a unique vector of equilibrium prices that is optimal in a suitable sense for the bidders in this paper we describe two dynamic auction mechanisms one achieves this equilibrium and the other approximates it to any desired degree of accuracy

carbon emissions from the commercial building sector the role of climate quality and incentives commercial buildings play a major role in determining u s greenhouse gas emissions yet surprisingly little is known about the environmental performance of different buildings at a point in time or how the same buildings perform over time by exploiting a unique panel of commercial buildings from a major electric utility we study the association between a building s electricity consumption and the physical attributes of buildings lease incentive terms indicators of human capital and climatic conditions we find that buildings that are newer and of higher quality consume more electricity contrasting evidence for the residential sector however using our panel data set we document that newer buildings are most resilient when exposed to hotter weather those buildings that have a building manager on site and whose tenants face a positive marginal cost for electricity also demonstrate a better environmental performance

prospect theory and energy efficiency abstract investments in energy efficiency entail uncertainty and when faced with uncertainty consumers have been shown to behave according to prospect theory preferences are reference dependent and exhibit loss aversion and probabilities are subjectively weighted using data from a choice experiment eliciting prospect theory parameters i provide evidence that loss averse people are less likely to invest in energy efficiency then i consider policy design under prospect theory when there are also externalities from energy use a higher degree of loss aversion implies a higher subsidy to energy efficiency numerical simulations suggest that the impact of prospect theory on policy may be substantial

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

dosis facit effectum why the size of the carbon tax matters evidence from the swedish residential sector abstract after 25 years of gradually increasing its carbon tax sweden now imposes the world s highest tax on carbon dioxide emissions this paper examines the effect of the swedish carbon tax on residential carbon emissions by using european panel data we employ synthetic control methods scms and perform difference in difference did regressions to evaluate the causal impact of carbon taxation on carbon emissions in the residential sector we provide evidence that early 2000s carbon tax augmentation had a causal effect on residential carbon emissions we find that the reduction of residential carbon emissions stemming from the carbon tax augmentation ranges from 200 kg when compared with other countries with a carbon tax of more than 20 euro to 800 kg when compared with countries without a carbon tax of co2 per capita per year hence the evidence suggests that carbon taxation is an effective tool for reducing residential co2 emissions and in turn mitigating climate change

empirics on the long run effects of building energy codes in the housing market we study the effectiveness of building energy codes taking a long run perspective the focus is on regulation s impact on energy demand in both high and low quality residences in other words the diffusion and the entry of green buildings in the housing market we develop a measure for regulation intensity and apply this to a panel error correction regression model for energy requirements of a large sample of german apartment houses built between 1950 and 2005 we show that regulation is effective in saving energy in particular regulation pushes investors in the low quality housing market segment toward the technological frontier indirectly it also affects the high quality segment jel q41 r52