IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeeman/v64y2012i2p153-168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stars and standards: Energy efficiency in rental markets

Author

Listed:
  • Burfurd, Ingrid
  • Gangadharan, Lata
  • Nemes, Veronika

Abstract

Evidence suggests that rental properties are often associated with lower levels of energy efficiency than owner-occupied buildings. Policy makers are increasingly concerned about this energy efficiency gap. In this paper, we investigate the energy investments made and the market efficiency gains associated with different policy interventions at the point of lease. We introduce key features of the housing rental market in the laboratory and examine four policy options: mandatory information on energy efficiency, voluntary information, mandatory minimum standards, and a ‘cost-share’ treatment (i.e., landlords pay a share of the tenants’ energy bill). We find that enabling landlords to post the energy efficiency of their properties increases investment in energy efficiency. Voluntary information achieves efficiency levels comparable to those under a mandatory programme but may lead to lower levels of tenant participation. Mandatory minimum standards lead to higher investments in energy efficiency, but also reduce the number of properties available for lease. Cost-sharing leads to low market efficiency levels, perhaps due to the uncertainty landlords face regarding the energy bill of their tenants.

Suggested Citation

  • Burfurd, Ingrid & Gangadharan, Lata & Nemes, Veronika, 2012. "Stars and standards: Energy efficiency in rental markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 153-168.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:64:y:2012:i:2:p:153-168
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2012.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009506961200054X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.05.002?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    2. Friesen, Lana & Gangadharan, Lata, 2013. "Designing self-reporting regimes to encourage truth telling: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 90-102.
    3. Brown, Paul M. & Stewart, Steven, 1999. "Avoiding severe environmental consequences: evidence on the role of loss avoidance and risk attitudes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 179-198, February.
    4. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Vadovic, Radovan, 2010. "Mandatory sick pay provision: A labor market experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 870-877, December.
    5. Urs Fischbacher, 2007. "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 171-178, June.
    6. Cason, Timothy N. & Gangadharan, Lata, 2002. "Environmental Labeling and Incomplete Consumer Information in Laboratory Markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 113-134, January.
    7. Armin Falk & Ernst Fehr & Christian Zehnder, 2006. "Fairness Perceptions and Reservation Wages—the Behavioral Effects of Minimum Wage Laws," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1347-1381.
    8. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1974. "Incentives and Risk Sharing in Sharecropping," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(2), pages 219-255.
    9. Mestelman, Stuart & Welland, Deborah & Welland, Douglas, 1987. "Advance production in posted offer markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 249-264, June.
    10. Darby, Michael R & Karni, Edi, 1973. "Free Competition and the Optimal Amount of Fraud," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 67-88, April.
    11. Charles R. Plott & Vernon L. Smith, 1978. "An Experimental Examination of Two Exchange Institutions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(1), pages 133-153.
    12. Davis, Douglas D. & Holt, Charles a., 1993. "Experimental economics: Methods, problems and promise," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 8(2), pages 179-212.
    13. Charles R. Plott, 2001. "Market Institutions and Price Discovery," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2162.
    14. Lucas W. Davis, 2011. "Evaluating the Slow Adoption of Energy Efficient Investments: Are Renters Less Likely to Have Energy Efficient Appliances?," NBER Chapters, in: The Design and Implementation of US Climate Policy, pages 301-316, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Charles A. Holt & Susan K. Laury, 2002. "Risk Aversion and Incentive Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1644-1655, December.
    16. Holt, Charles A & Sherman, Roger, 1990. "Advertising and Product Quality in Posted-Offer Experiments," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(1), pages 39-56, January.
    17. Garnaut,Ross, 2008. "The Garnaut Climate Change Review," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521744447, October.
    18. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filippin, Antonio & Crosetto, Paolo, 2014. "A Reconsideration of Gender Differences in Risk Attitudes," IZA Discussion Papers 8184, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Heffernan, Troy William & Daly, Matthew & Heffernan, Emma Elizabeth & Reynolds, Nina, 2021. "The carrot and the stick: Policy pathways to an environmentally sustainable rental housing sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    3. Michelsen, Claus & El-Shagi, Makram & Rosenschon, Sebastian, 2016. "The diffusion of "green'' buildings in the housing market: empirics on the long run effects of energy efficiency regulation," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145534, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Dodd, Tracey & Nelson, Tim, 2022. "Australian household adoption of solar photovoltaics: A comparative study of hardship and non-hardship customers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    5. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Sébastien Houde, 2014. "Double moral hazard and the energy efficiency gap," Working Papers hal-01016109, HAL.
    6. Wrigley, Koel & Crawford, Robert H., 2017. "Identifying policy solutions for improving the energy efficiency of rental properties," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 369-378.
    7. Hope, Alexander John & Booth, Alexander, 2014. "Attitudes and behaviours of private sector landlords towards the energy efficiency of tenanted homes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 369-378.
    8. Karel Doubravský & Alena Kocmanová & Mirko Dohnal, 2018. "Analysis of Sustainability Decision Trees Generated by Qualitative Models Based on Equationless Heuristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & S. Houde, 2013. "Double moral hazard and the energy efficiency gap," Post-Print hal-00799725, HAL.
    10. Kiet T. Nguyen, 2020. "Formal versus Informal System to Mitigate Non‐point Source Pollution: An Experimental Investigation," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 838-852, September.
    11. Fuerst, Franz & Oikarinen, Elias & Harjunen, Oskari, 2016. "Green signalling effects in the market for energy-efficient residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 560-571.
    12. Im, Jongho & Seo, Youngme & Cetin, Kristen S. & Singh, Jasmeet, 2017. "Energy efficiency in U.S. residential rental housing: Adoption rates and impact on rent," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1021-1033.
    13. Chaudhuri, Kausik & Huaccha, Gissell, 2023. "Who bears the energy cost? Local income deprivation and the household energy efficiency gap," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    14. Nie, Hongguang & Kemp, René & Xu, Jin-Hua & Vasseur, Véronique & Fan, Ying, 2020. "Split incentive effects on the adoption of technical and behavioral energy-saving measures in the household sector in Western Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

    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. Fernandes, Maria Eduarda & Valente, Marieta, 2021. "What you get is not what you paid for: New evidence from a lab experiment on negative externalities and information asymmetries," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Fabrice Etilé & Sabrina Teyssier, 2012. "Signaling Corporate Social Responsibility: Third-Party Certification vs. Brands," PSE Working Papers halshs-00736551, HAL.
    3. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00736551 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Etile, Fabrice & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2011. "Corporate and Consumer Social Responsibilities: Label Regulations in the Lab," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 120399, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Dariel, Aurelie & Riedl, Arno & Siegenthaler, Simon, 2021. "Referral hiring and wage formation in a market with adverse selection," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 109-130.
    6. Martin POLÍVKA & David MARTINČÍK, 2014. "Measures ensuring the food quality on retail markets: experimental perspective," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 60(8), pages 343-352.
    7. Dulleck, Uwe & Rudolf, Kerschbamer & Matthias, Sutter, 2009. "The Economics of Credence Goods: On the Role of Liability, Verifiability, Reputation and Competition," Working Papers in Economics 348, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    8. Douadia Bougherara & Virginie Piguet, 2008. "Marchés avec coûts d'information sur la qualité des biens : une application aux produits écolabellisés," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(1), pages 77-96.
    9. Vollstaedt, Ulrike & Imcke, Patrick & Brendel, Franziska & Ehses-Friedrich, Christiane, 2020. "Increasing consumer surplus through a novel product testing mechanism," Ruhr Economic Papers 887, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    10. Dong Yan & Christian A. Vossler & Scott M. Gilpatric, 2020. "Product quality and third-party certification in potential lemons markets," Working Papers 2020-04, University of Tennessee, Department of Economics.
    11. Jhunjhunwala, Tanushree, 2021. "Searching to avoid regret: An experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 298-319.
    12. Marco Costanigro & Yuko Onozaka, 2020. "A Belief‐Preference Model of Choice for Experience and Credence Goods," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 70-95, February.
    13. Fabienne Chameroy & Jean-Louis Chandon, 2011. "Are All Labels Ethical? [Les labels sont-ils tous éthiques ?]," Post-Print hal-02092068, HAL.
    14. Riedel, Nadine & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2013. "Asymmetric obligations," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 67-80.
    15. Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Vadovic, Radovan, 2012. "Sick pay provision in experimental labor markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-19.
    16. Lorko, Matej & Servátka, Maroš & Zhang, Le, 2023. "Hidden inefficiency: Strategic inflation of project schedules," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 313-326.
    17. Alistair Munro & Marieta Valente, 2016. "Green Goods: Are They Good or Bad News for the Environment? Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment on Impure Public Goods," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(2), pages 317-335, October.
    18. Haoran He & Yefeng Chen, 2021. "Auction mechanisms for allocating subsidies for carbon emissions reduction: an experimental investigation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(2), pages 387-430, August.
    19. Grolleau, Gilles & Caswell, Julie A., 2006. "Interaction Between Food Attributes in Markets: The Case of Environmental Labeling," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Vadovic, Radovan, 2010. "Mandatory sick pay provision: A labor market experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 870-877, December.
    21. Steinrücken, Torsten, 2001. "Der Markt für politische Zitronen," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 20, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.

    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:jeeman:v:64:y:2012:i:2:p:153-168. 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/inca/622870 .

    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.