IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v37y2016i1p259-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Alberini
  • Will Gans
  • Charles Towe

Abstract

We use a unique dataset that combines an original survey of households, information about the structural characteristics of their homes, utility-provided electricity usage records and program participation status, to study the uptake of energy efficiency incentives and their effect on residential electricity consumption. Attention is restricted to homes where heating and cooling is provided exclusively by air-source heat pumps. We deploy a difference-in-difference study design and find that replacing a heat pump with a new one does reduce electricity usage by 8% on average. The effect differs dramatically across households based upon whether they receive an incentive towards the purchase of a new heat pump. Among incentive recipients, the effect is small, and the larger the incentive, the smaller the reduction in electricity usage. These findings suggest that capital costs are incorporated into the (long-term) cost of energy, generating an apparent rebound effect that is much more pronounced for incentive recipients.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Alberini & Will Gans & Charles Towe, 2016. "Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(1), pages 259-290, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:37:y:2016:i:1:p:259-290
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.37.1.aalb
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.37.1.aalb
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.37.1.aalb?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbert E. Metcalf & Kevin A. Hassett, 1999. "Measuring The Energy Savings From Home Improvement Investments: Evidence From Monthly Billing Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(3), pages 516-528, August.
    2. Manuel Frondel and Colin Vance, 2013. "Re-Identifying the Rebound: What About Asymmetry?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    3. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    4. Paul L. Joskow & Donald B. Marron, 1992. "What Does a Negawatt Really Cost? Evidence from Utility Conservation Programs," The Energy Journal, , vol. 13(4), pages 41-74, October.
    5. Michael Greenstone & Elizabeth Kopits & Ann Wolverton, 2013. "Developing a Social Cost of Carbon for US Regulatory Analysis: A Methodology and Interpretation," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 23-46, January.
    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. Kažukauskas, Andrius & Li, Xiaoying, 2024. "Realized dynamic effect of retrofits on energy consumption in Soviet-era multi-apartment buildings," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Andreas Gerster & Manuel Frondel & Kathrin Kaestner & Michael Pahle & Puja Singhal, 2025. "Premium Programs for Energy Conservation: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Experiment," Working Papers 2504, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    3. Khanna, Tarun M. & Danilenko, Diana & Tomberg, Lukas & Hansteen, Sven & Andor, Mark Andreas & Lohmann, Paul & Minx, Jan C., 2025. "Meta-analysis on the efficacy of behavioral, information and economic interventions in increasing energy-efficiency adoption among households," Ruhr Economic Papers 1141, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    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. Anna Alberini, Will Gans, and Charles Towe, 2016. "Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Lang, Ghislaine & Lanz, Bruno, 2022. "Climate policy without a price signal: Evidence on the implicit carbon price of energy efficiency in buildings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    3. Lucas W. Davis & Alan Fuchs & Paul Gertler, 2014. "Cash for Coolers: Evaluating a Large-Scale Appliance Replacement Program in Mexico," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 207-238, November.
    4. repec:hal:gemwpa:hal-00991732 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Papineau, Maya, 2017. "Setting the standard? A framework for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of building energy standards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 63-76.
    6. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2019. "The Economics of Energy Efficiency, a Historical Perspective," CIRED Working Papers halshs-02301636, HAL.
    7. Moshiri, Saeed & Aliyev, Kamil, 2017. "Rebound effect of efficiency improvement in passenger cars on gasoline consumption in Canada," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 330-341.
    8. Daniel Sutter, 2017. "Propagandistic Research and the U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Efficiency in Ordinary Life and Renewables in Electricity Production," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 14(1), pages 103–120-1, January.
    9. Davis, Lucas & Martinez, Sebastian & Taboada, Bibiana, 2018. "How Effective is Energy-efficient Housing?: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8767, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Peter Grosche & Colin Vance, 2009. "Willingness to Pay for Energy Conservation and Free-Ridership on Subsidization: Evidence from Germany," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 135-154.
    11. Kenichi Mizobuchi & Kenji Takeuchi, 2016. "The Rebound Effect in Residential Electricity Use: Evidence from a Propensity Score Matching Estimator," Discussion Papers 1639, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    12. Pedro Linares & Xavier Labandeira, 2010. "Energy Efficiency: Economics And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 573-592, July.
    13. Alberini, Anna & Towe, Charles, 2015. "Information v. energy efficiency incentives: Evidence from residential electricity consumption in Maryland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 30-40.
    14. Peter Grösche & Colin Vance, 2008. "Willingness-to-Pay for Energy Conservation and Free-Ridership on Subsidization – Evidence from Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 0058, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Meredith Fowlie & Michael Greenstone & Catherine Wolfram, 2018. "Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1597-1644.
    16. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan, 2020. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to energy savings in the building sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2023. "The History of Energy Efficiency in Economics: Breakpoints and Regularities," Post-Print halshs-02301636, HAL.
    18. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet, Matthieu Glachant, and Jean-Philippe Nicolaï, 2020. "Selling and Saving Energy: Energy Efficiency Obligations in Liberalized Energy Markets," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    19. Judson Boomhower & Lucas Davis, 2020. "Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver at the Right Time?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 115-139, January.
    20. Kenneth Gillingham & Karen Palmer, 2014. "Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 8(1), pages 18-38, January.
    21. Schleich, Joachim & Mills, Bradford & Dütschke, Elisabeth, 2014. "A brighter future? Quantifying the rebound effect in energy efficient lighting," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 35-42.

    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:sae:enejou:v:37:y:2016:i:1:p:259-290. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.