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Is what we think of as “rebound” really just income effects in disguise?

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  • Saunders, Harry

Abstract

This paper examines the question of whether unexpectedly high energy use in the wake of energy efficiency gains can be explained as arising from increases in consumer wealth, as opposed to energy efficiency rebound effects. The analysis concludes that historical energy consumption increases were driven by more than just income levels, with the lowest-income consumers in the US using more energy in 2002 than they did in 1987 despite significant energy use efficiency gains and despite declining average incomes in this category. Further, direct use of energy in households increased for all income categories over this time period. These results point to rebound as being the culprit, not income effects.

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  • Saunders, Harry, 2013. "Is what we think of as “rebound” really just income effects in disguise?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 308-317.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:57:y:2013:i:c:p:308-317
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.056
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Saunders, Harry D., 2014. "Toward a neoclassical theory of sustainable consumption: Eight golden age propositions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 220-232.
    2. Wu, Kuei-Yen & Wu, Jung-Hua & Huang, Yun-Hsun & Fu, Szu-Chi & Chen, Chia-Yon, 2016. "Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects by supply-driven input-output model: A case study of Taiwan's industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 904-913.
    3. Camprubí, Lluís & Malmusi, Davide & Mehdipanah, Roshanak & Palència, Laia & Molnar, Agnes & Muntaner, Carles & Borrell, Carme, 2016. "Façade insulation retrofitting policy implementation process and its effects on health equity determinants: A realist review," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 304-314.
    4. Adetutu, Morakinyo O. & Glass, Anthony J. & Weyman-Jones, Thomas G., 2016. "Decomposing energy demand across BRIIC countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 396-404.
    5. Shi, Jian-hua & Han, Ying & Li, Xue-dong & Zhou, Jie-qi, 2022. "How does urbanization affect the direct rebound effect? Evidence from residential electricity consumption in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PE).
    6. Grégoire Wallenborn, 2018. "Rebounds Are Structural Effects of Infrastructures and Markets," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/277828, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Ghosh, Neal K. & Blackhurst, Michael F., 2014. "Energy savings and the rebound effect with multiple energy services and efficiency correlation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 55-66.
    8. Saunders, Harry D. & Roy, Joyashree & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & Chakravarty, Debalina & Dasgupta, Shyamasree & De La Rue Du Can, Stephane & Druckman, Angela & Fouquet, Roger & Grubb, Michael & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Energy efficiency: what has research delivered in the last 40 years?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Ying Han & Jianhua Shi & Yuanfan Yang & Yaxin Wang, 2019. "Direct Rebound Effect for Electricity Consumption of Urban Residents in China Based on the Spatial Spillover Effect," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Galvin, Ray, 2020. "Who co-opted our energy efficiency gains? A sociology of macro-level rebound effects and US car makers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Sang-Hyeon Jin, 2020. "Fuel poverty and rebound effect in South Korea: An estimation for home appliances using the modified regression model," Energy & Environment, , vol. 31(7), pages 1147-1166, November.
    12. 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.
    13. Yosuke Shigetomi & Keisuke Nansai & Shigemi Kagawa & Susumu Tohno, 2016. "Influence of income difference on carbon and material footprints for critical metals: the case of Japanese households," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    14. Pfaff, Matthias & Sartorius, Christian, 2015. "Economy-wide rebound effects for non-energetic raw materials," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 132-139.
    15. Bouhou, Nour-El Imane & Blackhurst, Michael F. & Torres, Pamela, 2015. "An empirical analysis of joint residential electricity efficiency gains within and across end uses: implications for demand-side management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 61-70.
    16. Khoshkalam Khosroshahi, Musa & Sayadi, Mohammad, 2020. "Tracking the sources of rebound effect resulting from the efficiency improvement in petrol, diesel, natural gas and electricity consumption; A CGE analysis for Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    17. Bogdan Włodarczyk & Daniela Firoiu & George H. Ionescu & Florin Ghiocel & Marek Szturo & Lesław Markowski, 2021. "Assessing the Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Sources Relationship in EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-16, April.
    18. Alan Kabanshi, 2020. "Are We Overestimating the Benefits of Emission Reduction Measures?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-9, January.

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