IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v105y2017icp269-282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Dutch residents ready for a more stringent policy to enhance the energy performance of their homes?

Author

Listed:
  • van Middelkoop, Manon
  • Vringer, Kees
  • Visser, Hans

Abstract

Investments in the energy performance of houses offer good prospects for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. However, people are not easily convinced of the need to take measures to improve the energy performance of their houses, even when financial benefits outweigh the costs. This article analyses the factors that influence the decision for improving the energy performance of existing homes, including policy instruments. Subsequently, the article provides policy suggestions on how to stimulate energy performance improvements. Both owners and tenants (50–70%) support government policy on energy performance improvements to existing homes. Nevertheless, people also have strong feelings of autonomy regarding their homes. Our results underline the importance of well-informed and competent decision-makers. Introducing the use of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) into the tax system for energy and residential buildings might therefore be an effective way to increase the interest of owners in the EPC, improve the use and effect of this informative instrument, and make the first step towards bridging the tension between autonomy and more stringent instruments.

Suggested Citation

  • van Middelkoop, Manon & Vringer, Kees & Visser, Hans, 2017. "Are Dutch residents ready for a more stringent policy to enhance the energy performance of their homes?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 269-282.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:105:y:2017:i:c:p:269-282
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.02.050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517301350
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.02.050?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. Kenneth Gillingham & Karen Palmer, 2014. "Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 8(1), pages 18-38, January.
    2. Murphy, Lorraine & Meijer, Frits & Visscher, Henk, 2012. "A qualitative evaluation of policy instruments used to improve energy performance of existing private dwellings in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 459-468.
    3. Hong Hu & Stan Geertman & Pieter Hooimeijer, 2014. "The willingness to pay for green apartments: The case of Nanjing, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(16), pages 3459-3478, December.
    4. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    5. Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Hobman, Elizabeth V., 2015. "Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1385-1394.
    6. Vringer, Kees & van Middelkoop, Manon & Hoogervorst, Nico, 2016. "Saving energy is not easy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 23-32.
    7. 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.
    8. Murphy, Lorraine, 2014. "The influence of the Energy Performance Certificate: The Dutch case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 664-672.
    9. Ana Ramos & Xavier Labandeira & Andreas Löschel, 2016. "Pro-environmental Households and Energy Efficiency in Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 367-393, February.
    10. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2012. "Residential energy-efficient technology adoption, energy conservation, knowledge, and attitudes: An analysis of European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 616-628.
    11. A. Greening, Lorna & Greene, David L. & Difiglio, Carmen, 2000. "Energy efficiency and consumption -- the rebound effect -- a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 389-401, June.
    12. Lisa Ryan & Nina Campbell, 2012. "Spreading the Net: The Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency Improvements," IEA Energy Papers 2012/8, OECD Publishing.
    13. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    14. Noailly, Joëlle & Batrakova, Svetlana, 2010. "Stimulating energy-efficient innovations in the Dutch building sector: Empirical evidence from patent counts and policy lessons," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7803-7817, December.
    15. Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils, 2011. "On the economics of energy labels in the housing market," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 166-179, September.
    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. Hyunjoo Lee & Misuk Lee & Sesil Lim, 2018. "Do Consumers Care about the Energy Efficiency of Buildings? Understanding Residential Choice Based on Energy Performance Certificates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Kees Vringer & Eline van der Heijden & Daan van Soest & Herman Vollebergh & Frank Dietz, 2017. "Sustainable Consumption Dilemmas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-21, June.
    3. Fouladvand, Javanshir & Aranguren Rojas, Maria & Hoppe, Thomas & Ghorbani, Amineh, 2022. "Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    4. Yu, Yinyun & Li, Congdong & Fu, Yelin & Yang, Weiming, 2023. "A group decision-making method to measure national energy architecture performance: A case study of the International energy Agency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(PA).
    5. Halleck Vega, Solmaria & van Leeuwen, Eveline & van Twillert, Nienke, 2022. "Uptake of residential energy efficiency measures and renewable energy: Do spatial factors matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Jan H. Miedema & Henny J. Van der Windt & Henri C. Moll, 2018. "Opportunities and Barriers for Biomass Gasification for Green Gas in the Dutch Residential Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Felipe Encinas & Carlos Marmolejo-Duarte & Carlos Aguirre-Nuñez & Francisco Vergara-Perucich, 2020. "When Residential Energy Labeling Becomes Irrelevant: Sustainability vs. Profitability in the Liberalized Chilean Property Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.

    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. Ramos, A. & Gago, A. & Labandeira, X. & Linares, P., 2015. "The role of information for energy efficiency in the residential sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 17-29.
    2. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "Factors affecting energy-saving behaviours and energy efficiency investments in British households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 529-539.
    3. Andersen, Kristoffer Steen & Wiese, Catharina & Petrovic, Stefan & McKenna, Russell, 2020. "Exploring the role of households’ hurdle rates and demand elasticities in meeting Danish energy-savings target," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    4. Jihyo Kim & Suhyeon Nam, 2021. "Do Household Time, Risk, and Social Preferences Affect Home Energy Retrofit Decisions in Korea?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.
    5. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    6. Petrov, Ivan & Ryan, Lisa, 2021. "The landlord-tenant problem and energy efficiency in the residential rental market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    7. Konstantin A Kholodilin & Andreas Mense & Claus Michelsen, 2017. "The market value of energy efficiency in buildings and the mode of tenure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(14), pages 3218-3238, November.
    8. Laura Abrardi, 2019. "Behavioral barriers and the energy efficiency gap: a survey of the literature," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(1), pages 25-43, March.
    9. Sahari, Anna, 2019. "Electricity prices and consumers’ long-term technology choices: Evidence from heating investments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 19-53.
    10. Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Irena Alebaite, 2020. "Climate Change Mitigation in Households between Market Failures and Psychological Barriers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, June.
    11. Lu Zhang & Lennart Stangenberg & Sjors van Wickeren, 2020. "The information value of energy labels: Evidence from the Dutch residential housing market," CPB Discussion Paper 413.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan, 2020. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to energy savings in the building sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Lu Zhang & Lennart Stangenberg & Sjors van Wickeren, 2020. "The information value of energy labels: Evidence from the Dutch residential housing market," CPB Discussion Paper 413, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Henningsen, Geraldine & Wiese, Catharina, 2019. "Do Household Characteristics Really Matter? A Meta-Analysis on the Determinants of Households’ Energy-Efficiency Investments," MPRA Paper 101701, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Aydin, Erdal & Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils, 2020. "The capitalization of energy efficiency: Evidence from the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    16. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet, 2018. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to building energy savings," Working Papers 2018.07, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    17. Aydin, Erdal, 2016. "Energy conservation in the residential sector : The role of policy and market forces," Other publications TiSEM b9cedba8-1310-4097-90fb-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    19. Yael Nidam & Ali Irani & Jamie Bemis & Christoph Reinhart, 2023. "Census-based urban building energy modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of retrofit programs," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(9), pages 2394-2406, November.
    20. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2016. "Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 321-331.

    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:enepol:v:105:y:2017:i:c:p:269-282. 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/enpol .

    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.