Heterogeneity in the Rebound Effect: Evidence from Efficient Lighting Subsidies

Ensieh Shojaeddini1, Ben Gilbert2
1Minerals Intelligence Research Section, National Minerals Information Center, USGS, Reston, USA
2Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, USA

Tóm tắt

This paper quantifies heterogeneity in rebound effects from policy-induced energy efficiency improvements by income and home size. We do so in a relatively understudied context: residential lighting. This context allows us to separately estimate effects for energy services (lighting hours) and electricity consumption. We identify the effect of household-level subsidy uptake using instrumental variables for program awareness. We find that rebound effects are larger for low-income households and those in smaller homes. We also show that the rebound effect is not large enough to “backfire” and all income and home-size subsamples exhibit net energy savings.

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