IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v86y2013icp188-198.html

Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis. Part 2: Simulation

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Brinda A.
  • Azevedo, Inês L.

Abstract

This is the second part of a two-part paper that integrates economic and industrial ecology methods to estimate the indirect rebound effect from residential energy efficiency investments. We apply the model developed in part one to simulate the indirect rebound, given an estimate of the direct rebound, using a 2002 environmentally-extended input–output model and the 2004 Consumer Expenditure Survey (in 2002$) for the U.S. We find an indirect rebound of 5–15% in primary energy and CO2e emissions, assuming a 10% direct rebound, depending on the fuel saved with efficiency and household income. The indirect rebound can be as high as 30–40% in NOx or SO2 emissions for efficiency in natural gas services. The substitution effect modeled in part one is small in most cases, and we discuss appropriate applications for proportional or income elasticity spending assumptions. Large indirect rebound effects occur as the U.S. electric grid becomes less-carbon intensive, in households with large transportation demands, or as energy prices increase. Even in extreme cases, there is limited evidence for backfire, or a rebound effect greater than 100%. Enacting pollution taxes or auctioned permits that internalize the externalities of energy use would ensure that rebound effects unambiguously increase consumers' welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Brinda A. & Azevedo, Inês L., 2013. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis. Part 2: Simulation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 188-198.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:86:y:2013:i:c:p:188-198
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.12.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800912004715
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.12.002?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeroen Bergh, 2011. "Energy Conservation More Effective With Rebound Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(1), pages 43-58, January.
    2. Hirst, Eric & White, Dennis & Goeltz, Richard, 1985. "Indoor temperature changes in retrofit homes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(7), pages 861-870.
    3. Fouquet, Roger, 2012. "Trends in income and price elasticities of transport demand (1850–2010)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 62-71.
    4. Lester D. Taylor & H.S. Houthakker, 2010. "Consumer Demand in the United States," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-1-4419-0510-9, January.
    5. Murray, Cameron K, 2011. "Income dependent direct and indirect rebound effects from ’green’ consumption choices in Australia," MPRA Paper 34973, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. David G. Tarr, 1990. "A Modified Cournot Aggregation Condition for Obtaining Estimates of Cross-Elasticities of Demand," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 257-264, Jul-Sep.
    7. repec:aen:journl:2007v28-01-a02 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Greene, David L., 2012. "Rebound 2007: Analysis of U.S. light-duty vehicle travel statistics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 14-28.
    9. repec:aen:journl:1980v01-04-a02 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Freire-González, Jaume, 2011. "Methods to empirically estimate direct and indirect rebound effect of energy-saving technological changes in households," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 32-40.
    11. Guerra, Ana-Isabel & Sancho, Ferran, 2010. "Rethinking economy-wide rebound measures: An unbiased proposal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6684-6694, November.
    12. Saunders, Harry D., 2000. "A view from the macro side: rebound, backfire, and Khazzoom-Brookes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 439-449, June.
    13. Brannlund, Runar & Ghalwash, Tarek & Nordstrom, Jonas, 2007. "Increased energy efficiency and the rebound effect: Effects on consumption and emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Alberini, Anna & Gans, Will & Velez-Lopez, Daniel, 2011. "Residential consumption of gas and electricity in the U.S.: The role of prices and income," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 870-881, September.
    15. Weber, Christopher L. & Matthews, H. Scott, 2008. "Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 379-391, June.
    16. Jeffrey A. Dubin & Allen K. Miedema & Ram V. Chandran, 1986. "Price Effects of Energy-Efficient Technologies: A Study of Residential Demand for Heating and Cooling," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(3), pages 310-325, Autumn.
    17. Bastien Girod & Peter De Haan, 2010. "More or Better? A Model for Changes in Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions due to Higher Income," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 14(1), pages 31-49, January.
    18. repec:aen:journl:1995v16-01-a03 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Druckman, Angela & Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Jackson, Tim, 2011. "Missing carbon reductions? Exploring rebound and backfire effects in UK households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3572-3581, June.
    20. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2005. "Household Electricity Demand, Revisited," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 853-883.
    21. repec:aen:journl:1996v17-02-a06 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. repec:aen:eeepjl:1_1_08 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Alfredsson, E.C., 2004. "“Green” consumption—no solution for climate change," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 513-524.
    24. Mizobuchi, Kenichi, 2008. "An empirical study on the rebound effect considering capital costs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2486-2516, September.
    25. Lucas W. Davis, 2008. "Durable goods and residential demand for energy and water: evidence from a field trial," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(2), pages 530-546, 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. Thomas, Brinda A. & Azevedo, Inês L., 2013. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for U.S. households with input–output analysis Part 1: Theoretical framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 199-210.
    2. Pfaff, Matthias & Sartorius, Christian, 2015. "Economy-wide rebound effects for non-energetic raw materials," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 132-139.
    3. Turner, Karen, 2012. "'Rebound' effects from increased energy efficiency: a time to pause and reflect," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2012-15, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    4. repec:aen:journl:ej34-4-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Milin Lu & Zhaohua Wang, 2017. "Rebound effects for residential electricity use in urban China: an aggregation analysis based E-I-O and scenario simulation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 525-546, August.
    6. Murray, Cameron K., 2013. "What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 240-256.
    7. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Druckman, Angela & Firth, Steven K. & Jackson, Tim, 2014. "Who rebounds most? Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for different UK socioeconomic groups," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 12-32.
    8. Su, Yu-Wen, 2019. "Residential electricity demand in Taiwan: Consumption behavior and rebound effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 36-45.
    9. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve & Druckman, Angela & Firth, Steven K. & Jackson, Tim, 2013. "Turning lights into flights: Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 234-250.
    10. Yang, Lisha & Li, Zhi, 2017. "Technology advance and the carbon dioxide emission in China – Empirical research based on the rebound effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 150-161.
    11. Broberg, Thomas & Berg, Charlotte & Samakovlis, Eva, 2015. "The economy-wide rebound effect from improved energy efficiency in Swedish industries–A general equilibrium analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 26-37.
    12. Gioele Figus & Patrizio Lecca & Karen Turner & Peter McGregor, 2016. "Increased energy efficiency in Scottish households: trading-off economic benefits and energy rebound effects?," EcoMod2016 9454, EcoMod.
    13. Lecca, Patrizio & McGregor, Peter G. & Swales, J. Kim & Turner, Karen, 2014. "The added value from a general equilibrium analysis of increased efficiency in household energy use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 51-62.
    14. Font Vivanco, David & Freire-González, Jaume & Kemp, René & van der Voet, Ester, 2014. "The Remarkable Environmental Rebound Effect of Electric Cars: A Microeconomic Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 48(20), pages 12063-12072.
    15. Wang, Zhaohua & Han, Bai & Lu, Milin, 2016. "Measurement of energy rebound effect in households: Evidence from residential electricity consumption in Beijing, China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 852-861.
    16. Freire-González, Jaume & Ho, Mun S., 2021. "Voluntary actions in households and climate change mitigation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 321.
    17. David Font Vivanco & Serenella Sala & Will McDowall, 2018. "Roadmap to Rebound: How to Address Rebound Effects from Resource Efficiency Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    18. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve, 2015. "Living up to expectations: Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 100-116.
    19. Orea, Luis & Llorca, Manuel & Filippini, Massimo, 2015. "A new approach to measuring the rebound effect associated to energy efficiency improvements: An application to the US residential energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 599-609.
    20. Figus, Gioele & Turner, Karen & McGregor, Peter & Katris, Antonios, 2017. "Making the case for supporting broad energy efficiency programmes: Impacts on household incomes and other economic benefits," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 157-165.
    21. Martín Bordon Lesme & Jaume Freire-González & Emilio Padilla Rosa, 2020. "The Direct Rebound Effect of Electricity Energy Services in Spanish Households: Evidence from Error Correction Model and System GMM estimates," Working Papers wpdea2002, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:ecolec:v:86:y:2013:i:c:p:188-198. 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/ecolecon .

    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.