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Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter?

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  • Salomé Bakaloglou and Dorothée Charlier

Abstract

The aim of this research is to understand the impact of preference heterogeneity in explaining energy consumption in French homes. Using a discrete-continuous model and the conditional mixed-process estimator (CMP) enable us to address two potential endogeneities in residential energy consumption: energy prices and the choice of home energy characteristics. As a key contribution, we provide evidence that a preference for comfort over saving energy does have significant direct and indirect impacts on energy consumption (through the choice of dwelling), particularly for high-income households. Preferring comfort over economy or one additional degree of heating implies an average energy overconsumption of 10% and 7.8% respectively, up to 18% for high-income households. Our results strengthen the belief that household heterogeneity is an important factor in explaining energy consumption and could have meaningful implications for the design of public policy tools aimed at reducing energy consumption in the residential sector.

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  • Salomé Bakaloglou and Dorothée Charlier, 2019. "Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej40-3-charlier
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    3. Fleckinger, Pierre & Glachant, Matthieu & Tamokoué Kamga, Paul-Hervé, 2019. "Energy Performance Certificates and investments in building energy efficiency: A theoretical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
    4. Fateh Belaïd & Christophe Rault & Camille Massié, 2021. "A Life-Cycle Analysis of French Household Electricity Demand," CESifo Working Paper Series 8814, CESifo.
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    7. Simonovits, András & Kotek, Péter & Horváth, Gábor & Takácsné Tóth, Borbála, 2023. "Az energiaárak támogatása Magyarországon - egy egyszerű modell [Subsidizing energy prices in Hungary - a simple model]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 589-612.
    8. Dorothée Charlier, 2021. "Explaining the energy performance gap in buildings with a latent profile analysis," Post-Print hal-03894155, HAL.
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    10. Frédéric Cherbonnier & Christian Gollier, 2022. "Risk-adjusted Social Discount Rates," Post-Print hal-04012977, HAL.
    11. Fateh Belaïd & Christophe Rault & Camille Massié, 2022. "A life-cycle theory analysis of French household electricity demand," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 501-530, April.
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    13. Fleckinger, Pierre & Glachant, Matthieu & Tamokoué Kamga, Paul-Hervé, 2019. "Energy Performance Certificates and investments in building energy efficiency: A theoretical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
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