direct rebound effect of residential gas demand empirical evidence from france abstract energy policymakers are increasingly concerned about energy efficiency improvements as such improvements are considered to be a key strategy in reducing energy demand in the residential sector however energy efficiency investments may not yield the expected energy savings due to the rebound effect concept which leads to lower savings than expected when energy efficiency increases using the standard ols regression and autoregressive distributed lag cointegration ardl approach this paper provides estimates of the magnitude of the rebound effect for residential gas consumption in france using 1983 2015 annual time series data the methodology is based on estimates of the gas demand elasticity with respect to service price the empirical findings indicate that the variables used in the model are cointegrated and suggest the presence of an obvious rebound effect in residential gas use more specifically estimates of the direct rebound effect in residential gas demand are approximately 53 in the short run and approximately 60 in the long run our findings reject the hypothesis of a backfire effect regarding residential gas use in france and hence suggest incorporating carbon taxation energy efficiency and alternative energy in the formulation of an energy saving policy to facilitate the transition towards a low carbon economy in france

residential energy demand in oecd countries and the role of irreversible efficiency improvements abstract after undergoing substantial changes during a period of high energy prices household energy demand did not rebound in times of declining energy prices as might have been expected hence other factors such as irreversible improvements in technical efficiency must be understood in order to describe both past and future household energy demand in this paper we consider irreversible efficiency improvements as a major reason for the moderate growth in energy demand after the plummeting of the oil price in 1985 we test different econometric models to take into account efficiency indicators the major conclusions of our investigation are i price elasticities are different for rising and falling prices for the latter they are close to zero implying a low rebound effect in the residential sector ii technical efficiency is an important parameter for describing and forecasting energy demand and iii income elasticities turn out to be higher once we incorporate indicators of technological efficiency in the process of estimating energy demand

energy conservation more effective with rebound policy this article sketches the problem of indirect energy use effects also known as rebound of energy conservation there is widespread support for energy conservation especially when it is voluntary as this seems a cheap way to realize environmental and energy climate goals however this overlooks the phenomenon of rebound the topic of energy rebound has mainly attracted attention from energy analysts but has been surprisingly neglected in environmental economics even though economists generally are concerned with indirect or economy wide impacts of technical change and policies this paper presents definitions and interpretations of energy and environmental rebound as well as four fundamental reasons for the existence of the rebound phenomenon it further offers the most complete list of rebound pathways or mechanisms available in the literature in addition it discusses empirical estimates of rebound and addresses the implications of uncertainties and difficulties in assessing rebound suggestions are offered for strategies and public policies to contain rebound it is advised that rebound evaluation is an essential part of environmental policy and project assessments as opposed to earlier studies this paper stresses the relevance of the distinction between energy conservation resulting from autonomous demand changes and from efficiency improvements in technology equipment in addition it argues that rebound is especially relevant for developing countries

the induced innovation hypothesis and energy saving technological change we develop a methodology for testing hicks s induced innovation hypothesis by estimating a product characteristics model of energy using consumer durables augmenting the hypothesis to allow for the ine uence of government regulations for the products we explored the evidence suggests that i the rate of overall innovation was independent of energy prices and regulations ii the direction of innovation was responsive to energy price changes for some products but not for others iii energy price changes induced changes in the subset of technically feasible models that were offered for sale iv this responsiveness increased substantially during the period after energy efficiency product labeling was required and v nonetheless a sizable portion of efficiency improvements were autonomous

heterogeneous direct rebound effect theory and evidence from the energy star program abstract improvements in energy efficiency change the relative prices of energy services and thus the consumption of those services this so called direct rebound effect changes the energy savings that improved efficiency might otherwise achieve this paper develops a theoretical model that shows the sign of the direct rebound effect depends on the type of energy service empirical evidence from the 2009 residential energy consumption survey data shows a negative direct rebound effect for energy star dishwashers and a potentially positive direct rebound effect for energy star air conditioners negative rebound effects amplify energy savings while positive rebound effects offset energy savings from using more efficient technologies

meat consumption and production analysis of efficiency sufficiency and consistency of global trends abstract the sustainability challenges that the food system is facing are ever increasing the traditional approach to monitoring these changes considers economic societal and environmental sustainability a strong case has been made however that a fourth dimension ethical should also be considered conventionally two main strategies have been used to assess the improvements in sustainability efficiency and sufficiency efficiency is usually linked with technological improvements and sufficiency is connected with a reduction in production or consumption we introduce a third strategy to the analysis namely consistency that is related mainly to the ethical dimension of sustainability trends of the indicators related to the three strategies are calculated on both a global and regional scale from 1962 to 2009 efficiency measured as land requirement for animal products has increased by about 13 percent globally sufficiency measured as the amount of meat consumed has declined by 91 percent and consistency measured as the number of animals slaughtered has declined by 264 percent in addition convergence analysis emphasizes that industrialized and developing countries are moving towards similar patterns of animal products consumption such results suggest that measures should be taken to develop a food system that is not only efficient but also ethically just

the impact of improved mileage on gasoline consumption a simple two equation model is presented of the short run derived demand for gasoline that incorporates both the effect of price and income on attained fuel efficiency and at the same time the effect of price income and attained fuel efficiency on miles traveled the results of this effort have provided 1 further evidence regarding the price and income elasticities of gasoline demand and more importantly 2 the first reported estimate of the short run mileage elasticity of gasoline demand these findings are important in determining appropriate and effective policies for reducing gasoline consumption in that they influence the relative effectiveness of such policies as excise taxes versus fuel efficiency standards 9 references 3 tables

an empirical analysis of joint residential electricity efficiency gains within and across end uses implications for demand side management to better understand the observed performance of demand side approaches on residential electricity use we develop and apply a mixed regression model of electricity consumption that includes marginal joint technical change for multiple residential electricity end uses air conditioning appliances devices and electric vehicles results indicate that the relative technical state of a home can significantly influence the performance of demand side interventions particularly the presence of a programmable thermostat within air conditioning we generally find that enough consistent technical improvement is needed to realize energy savings which could be due to engineering building performance or a declining marginal rebound effect as householders become thermally comfortable results indicate that homeowners do not leverage efficiency gains for appliance services but demonstrate mixed results when considering the expansion of electricity services householders may rebound into device loads albeit such results are not statistically significant however results indicate that householders do not leverage efficiency gains for electric vehicles these results demonstrate that the net effect of technological change in households is relative to a home s baseline technical efficiency and the degree to which homeowners seek new and existing energy services challenging empirical assessments that do not control for the technical state of multiple end uses

vertical control and price versus nonprice competition this paper considers a manufacturer distributing a product through retailers who compete in price and service which reduces the time it takes to purchase a good the mix of these instruments that maximizes collective profit is determined by the tastes of consumers on the product margin whereas decentralized retailers consider as well the tastes of consumers on the interretailer margins given search or travel costs consumers with low time costs are overrepresented on the interretailer margins in considering customers on the wrong margin retailers are therefore biased toward price competition this distortion that can be corrected with vertical restraints

examining the multiple impacts of technological progress on co2 emissions in china a panel quantile regression approach abstract whilst a plethora of literature has viewed technological progress as one of the critical influencing factors in relation to energy consumption and co2 emissions little effort has been made to identify the sectoral differences in the relationship between technological progress and co2 emissions thereby this paper remedies the inadequacies in the extant literature by empirically investigating the impact of technological progress on co2 emissions specifically taking into account its heterogeneous effect in various economic sectors this paper first decomposes the effect of technological progress as taking place in heavy industry in light industry in construction industry and in service industry a panel quantile regression approach and a balanced city panel data model are then applied covering the period 2001 2013 in china the empirical results show that technological progress in heavy industry and light industry surprisingly facilitates a higher level of co2 emissions despite its prominent contribution to energy efficiency improvement meanwhile as distinct from the effect it shows in the heavy and light industries technological progress in construction and service industries exerts a negative effect on co2 emissions additionally this paper further discovers that the strength of the multiple impacts of technological progress also varies with the level of emitters by studying the heterogeneous effect brought about by technological progress in different economic sectors and emitters this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between co2 emissions and technological progress

expectations information and migration the case of the west bank and gaza this study evaluates the determinants of palestinian migration from the west bank and gaza data are employed for the post 1967 period of israeli rule to specify and test competing models as well as the structure of expectations in the migration decision results of the analysis support a simple static expectation formulation as is consistent with much of the short term low mobility cost migration between the west bank and jordan findings further point to the importance of various israeli palestinian economic and political economic interactions in the determination of this controversial movement of population including those associated with employment opportunity for palestinian labour in israel elements of israeli west bank settlement policy and changes in local standard of living various policy implications of the research are indicated

3 d sustainability an approach for priority setting in situation of conflicting interests towards a sustainable development abstract this paper aims to provide a new approach to objectively assess hierarchies and priority setting in the relationship between environmental social and economic sustainability within sustainable development after a literature review several widely used conceptual figures diagrams describing this relationship were assessed using swot analyses in order to identify the major weaknesses in these pictorial descriptions based on the findings a new concept called 3 d sustainability has been developed and is presented visually as well as is described in the text this concept introduces and ranks criteria for the assessment of hierarchies within and conflicts of interests between social environmental and economic sustainability the three dimensions of sustainability these criteria are applied to several existing hierarchies and solutions to conflicts of interests based on the swot analyses the main shortcomings of the widely used conceptual figures were identified as 1 misinterpretation of embeddings 2 misjudgement of equity between the three dimensions of sustainability 3 a lack of expression of limitations and 4 lack of adequate decision support these shortcomings are overcome theoretically and in practice by 3 d sustainability a slightly more complex but conceptually richer figure than the widely used conceptual figures assessed in particular the shift of the burden of proof within the three sustainability dimensions is argued as a main solution the application of the criteria of 3 d sustainability to several real examples indicates its usefulness in decision support while justifying more sustainable hierarchies and solutions in the settlement of conflicts of interests within the three sustainability dimensions

technological progress and sustainable development what about the rebound effect abstract sustainability concepts that rest on the idea of resource or energy efficiency improvements due to technological progress tend to overestimate the potential saving effects because they frequently ignore the behavioral responses evoked by technological improvements efficiency improvements also affect the demand for resources and energy and often an increase in efficiency by 1 will cause a reduction in resource use that is far below 1 or sometimes it can even cause an increase in resource use this phenomenon is commonly labeled the rebound effect which is well known among energy economists but never attracted much attention in ecological economics the paper starts with the traditional neoclassical analysis of the rebound effect in a partial equilibrium framework that concentrates on the demand of one particular energy service such as mobility or room temperature it also provides an overview of some of the main empirical studies based on this model that mostly confirm the existence of the rebound effect but are controversial about its actual importance however we have to go beyond the neoclassical single service model in order to take care of the variety of possible feedback affecting energy use the paper presents two important expansions of the single service model in order to show the potential relevance of the rebound effect to ecological economics first it is shown that in a multi services model it proves to be difficult to make general statements about the relevance of the rebound effect in this case the overall effect of an increase in energy efficiency on total energy use depends on the on the assumptions about the substitutability between the services considered and the direction of the income effect second the paper also tries to take care of the fact that changes in resource use or energy use are frequently just side effects of other forms of technological progress especially technological change of a time saving nature can have a large influence on energy use as many time saving devices for example faster modes of transport require an increase in energy consumption that is frequently reinforced by a rebound effect with respect to time this effect will be especially strong when wages are high and at the same time energy prices are low as is currently the case in most industrialized countries consequently the paper also provides a strong argument for the introduction of energy taxes

energy requirements of household consumption a case study of the netherlands this article describes the results of several research programmes that together aim at the development and application of methodologies that enable the study of long term environmental effects mainly related to the total household energy demand of household consumption in relation to other economic sectors this is usually described as the household metabolism approach in this article we use energy consumption and co2 emissions as proxies for long term impacts on the environment the major long term environmental effects of several hundred dutch household consumption categories have been determined by means of the hybrid energy analysis methodology total energy consumption and related co2 emission data have been calculated as a function of household income and family type past trends have been studied by a time series 1950 1990 analysis technical reduction potentials have been calculated for mid and long term scenarios it is concluded that the set of methodologies described form a useful tool for the analysis of unsustainable trends in household consumption patterns and associated energy requirements in the past and the present the results indicate that present trends lead towards unsustainability however reversal of these trends is feasible if this starts in the immediate future and if it is maintained for decades c 1999 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

price effects of energy efficient technologies a study of residential demand for heating and cooling energy efficient appliances reduce the marginal price of the services they deliver this article shows empirically that such price reductions result in energy savings that are smaller than those engineering techniques generally project using econometric techniques with data from a unique utility experiment and a detailed engineering thermal load model we find that actual conservation is as much as 13 below engineering estimates for cooling and 8 12 below for heating customers who conserve electricity are also persistent their houses are comparatively warmer in summer and cooler in winter

the economy wide impact of controlling energy consumption in indonesia an analysis using a social accounting matrix framework escalating oil prices and the need to control carbon emissions sound the alarm for indonesia to reduce or be more efficient in its energy use instead of eliminating the fuel oil subsidy to promote better and more efficient use of energy the indonesian government seems to be more in favour of restricting energy use by for example requiring all hotels restaurants night clubs and other business activities to close down by 1 am societies need to understand the full consequences of adopting restricting energy use and more efficient energy use strategies toward their incomes this paper aims to analyse the impact on the economy of energy policies aiming to reduce and to improve the efficiency of energy use particularly on the income of various household groups this paper will first construct a social accounting matrix for indonesia with detailed energy sectors and second utilise various multiplier analyses to observe and understand the impact of these energy policies

lobbying under political uncertainty abstract this paper considers a model of lobbying described as a common agency game it departs from the current literature by assuming that the special interest groups are not a priori organized or unorganized and that the type of the politician is not common knowledge we characterize equilibria when the choice set of the politician consists of two policies we discuss the conditions leading to efficiency and the characteristics of the groups explaining their relative success in the process of influence we also offer some results for the general case including disjoint necessary and sufficient conditions for the equilibria to be efficient

a consumption based approach to environmental kuznets curves using the ecological footprint indicator recent research suggests that consumption based measures offer an insightful perspective on the debate on the relationship between economic growth and the environment in this article we deepen the

a time use perspective on the materials intensity of consumption abstract the ecological requirements to drastically increase the productivity of materials use call for improvements in the efficiency of consumption this eco efficiency discussion often takes a functional view on consumption noting that present consumption is inefficient and that it is not the products that the consumers want but the services that the products yield however contemporary consumption serves many needs that are not functional and universal but subjective and obscured from the producers this paper develops a time use approach towards consumption which makes allowance for the subjectivity of needs while still enabling the analysts to approach the concept of a sustainable lifestyle a distinctive premise of the analysis is that it assumes time and money not to be interchangeable and consumption to be limited by available consumption time instead of purchasing power this approach is demonstrated by linking the direct and the indirect energy use of finnish two person households to the data of a national time use survey the results are used to point out some of the potential time use rebound effects of such new eco efficient services that transfer activities from private households to the market actors

decoupling global environmental pressure and economic growth scenarios for energy use materials use and carbon emissions in recent decades economic growth and increased human wellbeing around the globe have come at the cost of fast growing natural resource use including materials and energy and carbon emissions leading to converging pressures of declining resource security rising and increasingly volatile natural resource prices and climate change we ask whether well designed policies can reduce global material and energy use and carbon emissions with only minimal impacts on improvements in living standards we use a novel approach of combined economic and environmental modelling to assess the potential for decoupling for 13 world regions and globally we apply a production territorial and consumption approach to discuss regional differences in natural resource use and carbon emissions across three stylized policy outlooks a reference case with no significant changes to environment and climate policies a high efficiency outlook involving a global carbon price rising from 50 to 236 constant price per tonne of co2 between 2010 and 2050 and improvements in resource efficiency rising from 1 5 historically to between 3 5 and 4 5 in the scenarios and a medium efficiency outlook midway between the no change and high outlooks we find that global energy use will continue to grow rapidly under all three scenarios from 17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent toe in 2010 to between 30 and 36 billion toe carbon emissions would be considerably lower with a global carbon price less than half the level of the reference case 29 37 billion tonnes of co2 instead of 74 billion tonnes and also material use would grow much more slowly under a carbon price and significant investment to increase resource efficiency 95 instead of 180 billion tonnes of materials we find that oecd economies have significant potential to reduce their material throughput and carbon emissions with little impact on economic growth and that developing economies such as china could expand their economies at much lower environmental cost globally the effects of very strong abatement and resource efficiency policies on economic growth and employment until 2050 are negligible our study suggests that decarbonization and dematerialization are possible with well designed policy settings and would not contradict efforts to raise human wellbeing and standards of living the research demonstrates the usefulness of scenarios for unpacking environmental and economic outcomes of policy alternatives the findings have important implications for future economic opportunities in a highly resource efficient and low carbon global economy to set human development and achieving the sustainable development goals on a more resilient path