IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/vfsc21/242343.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Distribution of Energy Efficiency and Regional Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Singhal, Puja
  • Hobbs, Andrew

Abstract

This paper studies the long-term distribution of energy-efficiency outcomes in the German residential sector. To uncover the underlying energy efficiency of buildings, we estimate the causal response of building-level heat energy demand to variability in heating degree days. We examine heterogeneity in temperature response using both panel fixed-effects and causal forests. Our results suggest that the distribution of energy-efficiency is not equitable in the West of Germany, with buildings located in the South attaining the best energy performance standards. Although the housing stock in the East is significantly older and thus less subject to building standards, they perform better than the West counterpart, likely as a result of large investments in retrofitting post-reunification. Finally, we show that the regional distribution of energy-efficiency reflects differences in heating needs - thus, the poorer energy performance of buildings in the North-West should be weighed against the warmer climatic zone.

Suggested Citation

  • Singhal, Puja & Hobbs, Andrew, 2021. "The Distribution of Energy Efficiency and Regional Inequality," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242343, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc21:242343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/242343/1/vfs-2021-pid-48823.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grant D. Jacobsen, 2019. "An Examination of How Energy Efficiency Incentives Are Distributed Across Income Groups," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 6).
    2. Stefan Wager & Susan Athey, 2018. "Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Random Forests," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(523), pages 1228-1242, July.
    3. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Sébastien Houde & Joseph Maher, 2018. "Moral Hazard and the Energy Efficiency Gap: Theory and Evidence," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 755-790.
    4. Severin Borenstein & Lucas W. Davis, 2016. "The Distributional Effects of US Clean Energy Tax Credits," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 191-234.
    5. Meredith Fowlie & Michael Greenstone & Catherine Wolfram, 2018. "Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1597-1644.
    6. Chris Bruegge & Tatyana Deryugina & Erica Myers, 2019. "The Distributional Effects of Building Energy Codes," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(S1), pages 95-127.
    7. Puja Singhal & Jan Stede, 2019. "Heat Monitor 2018: Rising Heating Energy Demand, Thermal Retrofit Rate Must Increase," DIW Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 9(35/36), pages 303-312.
    8. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Sébastien Houde & Joseph Maher, 2018. "Moral Hazard and the Energy Efficiency Gap: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers hal-01420872, HAL.
    9. Matthew J. Kotchen, 2017. "Longer-Run Evidence on Whether Building Energy Codes Reduce Residential Energy Consumption," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(1), pages 135-153.
    10. Christensen, Peter & Francisco, Paul & Myers, Erica & Nogueira Meirelles De Souza, Mateus, 2019. "Decomposing the Wedge: Mechanisms Driving the Gap Between Projected and Realized Returns in Energy Efficiency Programs," 2019 Annual Meeting, July 21-23, Atlanta, Georgia 291226, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Breidenbach Philipp & Eilers Lea, 2018. "RWI-GEO-GRID: Socio-economic data on grid level," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 238(6), pages 609-616, October.
    12. Makram El-Shagi & Claus Michelsen & Sebastian Rosenschon, 2017. "Empirics on the Long-Run Effects of Building Energy Codes in the Housing Market," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 93(4), pages 585-607.
    13. Antonio M. Bento, 2013. "Equity Impacts of Environmental Policy," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 181-196, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Singhal, Puja & Pahle, Michael & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Levesque, Antoine & Sommer, Stephan & Berneiser, Jessica, 2022. "Beyond good faith: Why evidence-based policy is necessary to decarbonize buildings cost-effectively in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Yujie Xu & Vivian Loftness & Edson Severnini, 2021. "Using Machine Learning to Predict Retrofit Effects for a Commercial Building Portfolio," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Lang, Ghislaine & Lanz, Bruno, 2022. "Climate policy without a price signal: Evidence on the implicit carbon price of energy efficiency in buildings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Anna Petronevich & Laurent Faucheux, 2018. "How do lenders price energy efficiency? Evidence from posted interest rates for unsecured credit in France [Comment les créditeurs valorisent-ils l'efficacité énergétique? Une analyse des taux d'in," Working Papers hal-01890636, HAL.
    5. Fischbacher, Urs & Schudy, Simeon & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2021. "Heterogeneous preferences and investments in energy saving measures," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    6. Blonz, Joshua, 2018. "The Welfare Costs of Misaligned Incentives: Energy Inefficiency and the Principal-Agent Problem," RFF Working Paper Series 18-28, Resources for the Future.
    7. Bourgeois, Cyril & Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Quirion, Philippe, 2021. "Lump-sum vs. energy-efficiency subsidy recycling of carbon tax revenue in the residential sector: A French assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    8. Joshua Blonz, 2019. "The Welfare Costs of Misaligned Incentives: Energy Inefficiency and the Principal-Agent Problem," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-071, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Managing the distributional effects of climate policies: A narrow path to a just transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    10. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    11. Shittu, Ekundayo & Weigelt, Carmen, 2022. "Accessibility in sustainability transitions: U.S. electric utilities’ deployment of solar," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    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. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2023. "The History of Energy Efficiency in Economics: Breakpoints and Regularities," Post-Print halshs-02301636, HAL.
    14. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Petronevich, Anna & Faucheux, Laurent, 2021. "Differentiated green loans," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Schaufele, Brandon, 2021. "Lessons from a utility-sponsored revenue neutral electricity conservation program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    16. Petrovich, Beatrice & Carattini, Stefano & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2021. "The price of risk in residential solar investments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    17. Frondel, Manuel & Kussel, Gerhard & Sommer, Stephan & Vance, Colin, 2019. "Local cost for global benefit: The case of wind turbines," Ruhr Economic Papers 791, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen, revised 2019.
    18. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan & Bourgeois, Cyril & Quirion, Philippe, 2021. "Policies for low-carbon and affordable home heating: A French outlook," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Cyril Bourgeois & Philippe Quirion, 2020. "Efficacité économique et effets distributifs de long-terme des politiques de rénovation énergétique des logements," Post-Print hal-03100351, HAL.
    20. Myers, Erica, 2020. "Asymmetric information in residential rental markets: Implications for the energy efficiency gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Heat Demand; Energy Efficiency; Targeting; Regional Distribution; Climate Change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:vfsc21:242343. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    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.