IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v254y2025ics0165176525002903.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How (In)elastic is the short-run demand for electricity?

Author

Listed:
  • Scarazzato, Francesco

Abstract

This paper examines how the aggregate demand for electricity responds to changes in hourly wholesale market prices. I focus on a hydropower-rich country and use data on imported wind energy and accumulated precipitation as instruments for price. Using data from Switzerland from 2016 to 2023, I find that both instruments have a strong and significant price-depressing effect, and I estimate the price elasticity of aggregate demand to be −0.1. However, this responsiveness is entirely driven by the consumption of storage systems and power plants, while end-user demand remains perfectly inelastic to price fluctuations in the short-run.

Suggested Citation

  • Scarazzato, Francesco, 2025. "How (In)elastic is the short-run demand for electricity?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:254:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525002903
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525002903
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112453?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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

    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:ecolet:v:254:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525002903. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/ecolet .

    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.