IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/ucscec/qt0nw2m1n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mandatory Energy Efficiency Disclosure in Housing Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Myers, Erica
  • Puller, Steven L
  • West, Jeremy

Abstract

Mandatory disclosure policies are implemented broadly despite sparse evidence that they improve market outcomes. We study the effects of requiring home sellers to provide buyers with certified audits of residential energy efficiency. Using similar nearby homes as a comparison group, we find that this requirement increases price premiums for energy efficiency and encourages energy-saving investments. We additionally present evidence highlighting the market failure—incomplete information by both buyers and sellers—that prevents widespread voluntary disclosure of energy efficiency in housing transactions. Our findings support that disclosure policies can improve market outcomes in settings with symmetrically incomplete information. (JEL D83, K32, L98, Q41, Q48, R31)

Suggested Citation

  • Myers, Erica & Puller, Steven L & West, Jeremy, 2022. "Mandatory Energy Efficiency Disclosure in Housing Markets," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt0nw2m1n4, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt0nw2m1n4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0nw2m1n4.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gregory Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Information, Adverse Selection and Online Disclosure: The Case of eBay Motors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1535-1546, June.
    2. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    3. Cornago, Elisabetta & Dressler, Luisa, 2020. "Incentives to (not) disclose energy performance information in the housing market," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja, 2017. "Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1535-1563, June.
    5. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    6. Nicholas Bloom & Benn Eifert & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2013. "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 1-51.
    7. Daniel E. Ho & Zoe C. Ashwood & Cassandra Handan-Nader, 2019. "New Evidence on Information Disclosure through Restaurant Hygiene Grading," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 404-428, November.
    8. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2025. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Economics of Environment, Climate Change, and Wine Selected Papers of Robert N Stavins Volume 3 (2011–2023), chapter 4, pages 53-118, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2017. "Measuring the Welfare Effects of Residential Energy Efficiency Programs," NBER Working Papers 23386, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Boyan Jovanovic, 1982. "Truthful Disclosure of Information," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(1), pages 36-44, Spring.
    11. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    12. Liang Guo & Ying Zhao, 2009. "Voluntary Quality Disclosure and Market Interaction," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(3), pages 488-501, 05-06.
    13. Hao Li & Xianwen Shi, 2017. "Discriminatory Information Disclosure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(11), pages 3363-3385, November.
    14. Erica Myers, 2019. "Are Home Buyers Inattentive? Evidence from Capitalization of Energy Costs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 165-188, May.
    15. Linda T. M. Bui & Christopher J. Mayer, 2003. "Regulation and Capitalization of Environmental Amenities: Evidence from the Toxic Release Inventory in Massachusetts," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 693-708, August.
    16. David Dranove & Ginger Zhe Jin, 2010. "Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 935-963, December.
    17. Bryan Bollinger & Phillip Leslie & Alan Sorensen, 2011. "Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 91-128, February.
    18. Hunt Allcott & Christopher Knittel, 2019. "Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-37, February.
    19. Manuel Frondel & Andreas Gerster & Colin Vance, 2020. "The Power of Mandatory Quality Disclosure: Evidence from the German Housing Market," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(1), pages 181-208.
    20. Anderson, Soren T. & Newell, Richard G., 2004. "Information programs for technology adoption: the case of energy-efficiency audits," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 27-50, March.
    21. Meghan R. Busse & Christopher R. Knittel & Florian Zettelmeyer, 2013. "Are Consumers Myopic? Evidence from New and Used Car Purchases," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 220-256, February.
    22. Michael J. Fishman & Kathleen M. Hagerty, 2003. "Mandatory Versus Voluntary Disclosure in Markets with Informed and Uninformed Customers," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 45-63, April.
    23. Paul Milgrom & John Roberts, 1986. "Relying on the Information of Interested Parties," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 18-32, Spring.
    24. George Loewenstein & Cass R. Sunstein & Russell Golman, 2014. "Disclosure: Psychology Changes Everything," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 391-419, August.
    25. 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.
    26. Arik Levinson, 2016. "How Much Energy Do Building Energy Codes Save? Evidence from California Houses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 2867-2894, October.
    27. Aydin, Erdal & Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils, 2020. "The capitalization of energy efficiency: Evidence from the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    28. Enrique Seira & Alan Elizondo & Eduardo Laguna-Müggenburg, 2017. "Are Information Disclosures Effective? Evidence from the Credit Card Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 277-307, February.
    29. Oliver Board, 2009. "Competition And Disclosure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 197-213, March.
    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. Daryl Fairweather & Matthew E. Kahn & Robert D. Metcalfe & Sebastian Sandoval Olascoaga, 2024. "Expecting Climate Change: A Nationwide Field Experiment in the Housing Market," NBER Working Papers 33119, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Bishop, Kelly C. & Kiribrahim-Sarikaya, Ozgen, 2024. "Energy-efficient investments in housing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Kaestner, Kathrin & Sommer, Stephan & Berneiser, Jessica & Henger, Ralph & Oberst, Christian, 2025. "Cost sharing mechanisms for carbon pricing: What drives support in the housing sector?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Fang, Ximeng & Singhal, Puja, 2024. "Weather to pay attention to energy efficiency on the housing market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    5. Damen, Sven & van Kempen, Tijmen, 2025. "Mandatory energy efficiency disclosure policies and house prices," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(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. Erica Myers & Steven L. Puller & Jeremy D. West, 2019. "Effects of Mandatory Energy Efficiency Disclosure in Housing Markets," NBER Working Papers 26436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Schmitt, Stefanie Y. & Bruckner, Dominik, 2023. "Unaware consumers and disclosure of deficiencies," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1018-1042.
    3. Huse, Cristian & Lucinda, Claudio & Cardoso, Andre Ribeiro, 2020. "Consumer response to energy label policies: Evidence from the Brazilian energy label program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Arnaud Dellis & Mandar Oak, 2020. "Subpoena power and informational lobbying," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(2), pages 188-234, April.
    5. Dmitry Lubensky & Eric Schmidbauer, 2020. "Free Product Trials: Disclosing Quality And Match Value," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1565-1576, October.
    6. Ginger Zhe Jin & Michael Luca & Daniel Martin, 2022. "Complex Disclosure," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3236-3261, May.
    7. Myers, Erica, 2020. "Asymmetric information in residential rental markets: Implications for the energy efficiency gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    8. Tom Lane & Minghai Zhou, 2022. "Failure of unravelling theory? A natural field experiment on voluntary quality disclosure," Discussion Papers 2022-17, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    9. Bishop, Kelly C. & Kiribrahim-Sarikaya, Ozgen, 2024. "Energy-efficient investments in housing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Deversi, Marvin & Ispano, Alessandro & Schwardmann, Peter, 2021. "Spin doctors: An experiment on vague disclosure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Hong, Xianpei & Zhou, Menghuan & Gong, Yeming, 2021. "Dilemma of quality information disclosure in technology licensing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(2), pages 543-557.
    12. Levent Celik, 2014. "Information Unraveling Revisited: Disclosure of Horizontal Attributes," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 113-136, March.
    13. Marvin Deversi & Alessandro Ispano & Peter Schwardmann, 2018. "Spin Doctors: A Model and an Experimental Investigation of Vague Disclosure," CESifo Working Paper Series 7244, CESifo.
    14. Xun Bian & Justin C. Contat & Bennie D. Waller & Scott A. Wentland, 2023. "Why Disclose Less Information? Toward Resolving a Disclosure Puzzle in the Housing Market," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 443-486, February.
    15. Creane, Anthony & Jeitschko, Thomas D. & Sim, Kyoungbo, 2022. "Welfare effects of product certification under latent adverse selection," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Huan Cao & Xu Guan & Tijun Fan & Li Zhou, 2020. "The Acquisition of Quality Information in a Supply Chain with Voluntary vs. Mandatory Disclosure," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(3), pages 595-616, March.
    17. Daniela Rroshi & Michael Weichselbaumer, 2021. "What is in a price? Evidence on quality signaling for experience goods," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp311, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    18. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2013. "The Advertising Mix for a Search Good," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 69-83, April.
    19. 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).
    20. Liang Guo, 2020. "Upstream Exploitation and Strategic Disclosure," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(5), pages 923-938, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • L98 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Government Policy
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cdl:ucscec:qt0nw2m1n4. 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: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecucsus.html .

    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.