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Consumer surplus from energy transitions

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  • Roger Fouquet

Abstract

Energy transitions have led to major advances in human wellbeing. How- ever, little evidence exists about the scale of the net benefits. By developing a new method for identifying the demand curve, and by using a unique, his- torical data set, this paper estimates the consumer surplus associated with heating, transport and lighting over more than two hundred years and iden- tifies the gains from a number of key energy transitions. For certain energy transitions, the increase was dramatic, re ecting the transformations in soci- ety and lifestyles that mobility and illumination provided in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet, the net benefits related to heating technologies only rose modestly. Finally, due to saturation effects of the demand for en- ergy services, future technological developments and energy transitions may benefit consumers (though not necessarily society as a whole) less than those in the past.

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  • Roger Fouquet, 2017. "Consumer surplus from energy transitions," GRI Working Papers 277, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp277
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Measuring Benefits from Energy Transitions
      by tambo0986 in NEP-HIS blog on 2018-02-22 05:57:33

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    Cited by:

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    2. Watanabe, Chihiro & Tou, Yuji & Neittaanmäki, Pekka, 2020. "Institutional systems inducing R&D in Amazon- the role of an investor surplus toward stakeholder capitalization," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Whiting, Kai & Carmona, Luis Gabriel & Brand-Correa, Lina & Simpson, Edward, 2020. "Illumination as a material service: A comparison between Ancient Rome and early 19th century London," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. Saunders, Harry D. & Roy, Joyashree & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & Chakravarty, Debalina & Dasgupta, Shyamasree & De La Rue Du Can, Stephane & Druckman, Angela & Fouquet, Roger & Grubb, Michael & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Energy efficiency: what has research delivered in the last 40 years?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Fouquet, Roger & Hippe, Ralph, 2022. "Twin transitions of decarbonisation and digitalisation: a historical perspective on energy and information in European economies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115544, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Cédric Clastres & Haikel Khalfallah, 2020. "Retailers' strategies facing demand response and markets interactions," Working Papers hal-03167543, HAL.

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    • F0 - International Economics - - General

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