IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v39y2013icp197-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deconstructing the Rosenfeld curve: Making sense of California's low electricity intensity

Author

Listed:
  • Sudarshan, Anant

Abstract

Regulatory regimes that have increased household energy efficiency are of widespread interest to policymakers today. A prominent example is the state of California where electricity intensities in the residential sector have stayed near constant since the 1970s in sharp contrast to nationwide trends in the United States. A structural model of residential energy consumption is used to show that the use of energy intensities alone to evaluate the success of California efficiency programs is misleading and glosses over important policy independent factors. We quantify important effects of price, climate conditions and demographic characteristics on energy consumption in California. We also provide evidence of split incentive considerations in residential energy consumption patterns. We conclude that while state policy may have had some effect on efficiency, caution needs to be exercised in using the California example to inform expectations from similar measures in other regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sudarshan, Anant, 2013. "Deconstructing the Rosenfeld curve: Making sense of California's low electricity intensity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 197-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:39:y:2013:i:c:p:197-207
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988313000881
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas W. Davis, 2011. "Evaluating the Slow Adoption of Energy Efficient Investments: Are Renters Less Likely to Have Energy Efficient Appliances?," NBER Chapters, in: The Design and Implementation of US Climate Policy, pages 301-316, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Michael Parti & Cynthia Parti, 1980. "The Total and Appliance-Specific Conditional Demand for Electricity in the Household Sector," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 309-321, Spring.
    3. Sridhar Narayanan & Pradeep Chintagunta & Eugenio Miravete, 2007. "The role of self selection, usage uncertainty and learning in the demand for local telephone service," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-34, March.
    4. Espey, James A. & Espey, Molly, 2004. "Turning on the Lights: A Meta-Analysis of Residential Electricity Demand Elasticities," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 65-81, April.
    5. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2010. "Why Has California's Residential Electricity Consumption Been So Flat since the 1980s?: A Microeconometric Approach," NBER Working Papers 15978, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Toshi H. Arimura, Shanjun Li, Richard G. Newell, and Karen Palmer, 2012. "Cost-Effectiveness of Electricity Energy Efficiency Programs," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    7. Shin, Jeong-Shik, 1985. "Perception of Price When Price Information Is Costly: Evidence from Residential Electricity Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(4), pages 591-598, November.
    8. Dubin, Jeffrey A & McFadden, Daniel L, 1984. "An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electric Appliance Holdings and Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(2), pages 345-362, March.
    9. Kenneth Train & Gil Mehrez, 1994. "Optional Time-of-Use Prices for Electricity: Econometric Analysis of Surplus and Pareto Impacts," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 263-283, Summer.
    10. Maximilian Auffhammer & Carl Blumstein & Meredith Fowlie, 2008. "Demand-Side Management and Energy Efficiency Revisited," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 91-104.
    11. Sha Yang & Yuxin Chen & Greg Allenby, 2003. "Bayesian Analysis of Simultaneous Demand and Supply," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 251-275, September.
    12. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2005. "Household Electricity Demand, Revisited," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 853-883.
    13. Allenby, Greg M. & Rossi, Peter E., 1998. "Marketing models of consumer heterogeneity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1-2), pages 57-78, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. He, Yongxiu & Guang, Fengtao & Wang, Meiyan, 2018. "The efficiency of electricity-use of China and its influencing factors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 258-269.
    2. Filippini, Massimo & Hunt, Lester C., 2015. "Measurement of energy efficiency based on economic foundations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 5-16.
    3. Levinson, Arik, 2014. "California energy efficiency: Lessons for the rest of the world, or not?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 269-289.
    4. Emily Grubert, 2023. "Yellow, red, and brown energy: leveraging water footprinting concepts for decarbonizing energy systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 7239-7260, July.
    5. Massimo Filippini & Lester C. Hunt, 2013. "'Underlying Energy Efficiency' in the US," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 13/181, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fell, Harrison & Li, Shanjun & Paul, Anthony, 2014. "A new look at residential electricity demand using household expenditure data," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 37-47.
    2. Woo, C.K. & Liu, Y. & Zarnikau, J. & Shiu, A. & Luo, X. & Kahrl, F., 2018. "Price elasticities of retail energy demands in the United States: New evidence from a panel of monthly data for 2001–2016," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 460-474.
    3. Boogen, Nina & Datta, Souvik & Filippini, Massimo, 2021. "Estimating residential electricity demand: New empirical evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    4. Paulo Bastos & Lucio Castro & Julian Cristia & Carlos Scartascini, 2015. "Does Energy Consumption Respond to Price Shocks? Evidence from a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 249-278, June.
    5. Woo, C.K. & Sreedharan, P. & Hargreaves, J. & Kahrl, F. & Wang, J. & Horowitz, I., 2014. "A review of electricity product differentiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 262-272.
    6. Dorothée CHARLIER & Mouez FODHA & Djamel KIRAT, 2021. "CO2 Emissions from the Residential Sector in Europe: Some Insights form a Country-Level Assessment," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2849, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    7. Thomas M. Fullerton & Ericka C. M ndez-Carrillo & Adam G. Walke, 2014. "Electricity Demand in a Northern Mexico Metropolitan Economy," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 4(4), pages 495-505.
    8. Çetinkaya, Murat & Başaran, Alparslan A. & Bağdadioğlu, Necmiddin, 2015. "Electricity reform, tariff and household elasticity in Turkey," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 79-85.
    9. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun Sing & Li, Yating & Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2019. "Chinese residential electricity consumption: Estimation and forecast using micro-data," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 6-27.
    10. Vesterberg, Mattias, 2016. "The hourly income elasticity of electricity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 188-197.
    11. Nina Boogen & Souvik Datta & Massimo Filippini, 2014. "Going beyond tradition: Estimating residential electricity demand using an appliance index and energy services," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/200, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    12. Jin-Hyuk Kim & Tin Cheuk Leung, 2013. "Quantifying the Impacts of Digital Rights Management and E-Book Pricing on the E-Book Reader Market," Working Papers 13-03, NET Institute.
    13. Arbues, Fernando & Villanu´a, Inmaculada & Barberán Ortí, Ramón, 2010. "Household size and residential water demand: an empirical approach," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(1), pages 1-20.
    14. Xiaojia Bao, 2016. "Water, Electricity and Weather Variability in Rural Northern China," Working Papers 2014-07-02, Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University.
    15. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    16. Alberini, Anna & Filippini, Massimo, 2011. "Response of residential electricity demand to price: The effect of measurement error," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 889-895, September.
    17. Maria Chiara D'errico, 2020. "Demand Elasticity in the Italian Power Market: a Bayesian Experiment under dual pricing scheme," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 11(1-2).
    18. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Palmer, Charles & Pinchbeck, Edward W., 2019. "The energy costs of historic preservation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    19. Gans, Will & Alberini, Anna & Longo, Alberto, 2013. "Smart meter devices and the effect of feedback on residential electricity consumption: Evidence from a natural experiment in Northern Ireland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 729-743.
    20. Manuel Frondel and Gerhard Kussel, 2019. "Switching on Electricity Demand Response: Evidence for German Households," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household energy; Energy efficiency; Bayesian hierarchical modeling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:39:y:2013:i:c:p:197-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.