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Energy Tax Credits and Residential Conservation Investment

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Author Info
Kevin A. Hassett
Gilbert E. Metcalf

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Abstract

We model the decision to invest in residential energy conservation capital as an irreversible investment in the face of price uncertainty. The irreversible nature of this investment means that there is a value to waiting to invest (an option value) which helps explain the low rate of conservation investment as a result of the residential energy tax credit. Simulations suggest that a tax credit of the type implemented from 1978 through 1985 will not increase conservation investment significantly. We investigate the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of credits using data from a panel data set of roughly 38,000 individual tax returns followed over a three year period from 1979-1981. Unlike previous work, we find that the energy tax credit is statistically significant in explaining the probability of investing. Our estimates suggest that increasing the federal credit by 10 percentage points would increase the percentage of households claiming the credit from 5.7% to 7.1%.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 4020.

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Date of creation: Aug 1995
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4020

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Jovanovic, Boyan & Lach, Saul, 1989. "Entry, Exit, and Diffusion with Learning by Doing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 690-99, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Edwin H. Carpenter & S. Theodore Chester, Jr., 1984. "Are Federal Energy Tax Credits Effective? A Western United States Survey," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 5(2), pages 139-150.
  3. Jerry A. Hausman, 1979. "Individual Discount Rates and the Purchase and Utilization of Energy-Using Durables," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 33-54, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Jaffe, Adam B. & Stavins, Robert N., 1994. "The energy paradox and the diffusion of conservation technology," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 91-122, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Chamberlain, Gary, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 225-38, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Cameron, Trudy Ann, 1985. "A Nested Logit Model of Energy Conservation Activity by Owners of Existing Single Family Dwellings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(2), pages 205-11, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Dubin, Jeffrey A. & Henson, Steven E., 1988. "The distributional effects of the Federal Energy Tax Act," Resources and Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 191-212, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. McDonald, Robert & Siegel, Daniel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 707-27, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Dubin, Jeffrey A. & Henson, Steven E., 1988. "The Distributional Effects of the Federal Energy Tax Act," Working Papers 674, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. [Downloadable!]
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  1. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2004. "A Tale of Two Market Failures: Technology and Environmental Policy," Discussion Papers dp-04-38, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Bruno CRUZ & Aude POMMERET, 2003. "Subsidizing energy saving capital accumulation: a real option approach," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'Econométrie et d'Economie politique (DEEP) 03.14, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, DEEP. [Downloadable!]
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