IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpb/discus/194.html

Reducing Rents from Energy Technology Adoption Programs by Exploiting Observable Information

Author

Listed:
  • Rob Aalbers

    (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis)

  • Henri de Groot
  • Herman R.J. Vollebergh

Abstract

In this CPB Discussion Paper, we study how regulators may improve upon the efficiency of their energy technology adoption programs by exploiting readily observable information to limit rent extraction by firms. Using panel data on 862 investment decisions in the Netherlands, we find that rent extraction is closely linked not only to technology characteristics, but also to the firm's capital budgetting technique. In particular, we find that rms are more likely to extract rent when either the technology's pay-back period or its required investment is lower, but less likely if they do not use a formal capital budgeting technique. Standard firm characteristics, such as size and sector, correlate with firms' use of capital budgeting techniques, thereby partly resolving the regulator's asymmetric information problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Rob Aalbers & Henri de Groot & Herman R.J. Vollebergh, 2011. "Reducing Rents from Energy Technology Adoption Programs by Exploiting Observable Information," CPB Discussion Paper 194, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cpb.nl/system/files/cpbmedia/publicaties/download/cpb-discussion-paper-194-reducing-rents-energy-technology-adoption-programs-exploiting-observable-in.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gallagher, Kelly Sims & Muehlegger, Erich, 2011. "Giving green to get green? Incentives and consumer adoption of hybrid vehicle technology," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Chandra, Ambarish & Gulati, Sumeet & Kandlikar, Milind, 2010. "Green drivers or free riders? An analysis of tax rebates for hybrid vehicles," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 78-93, September.
    3. repec:aen:journl:2000v21-01-a04 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Pindyck, Robert S, 1991. "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 1110-1148, September.
    5. Parsons, Donald O., 1996. "Imperfect 'tagging' in social insurance programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 183-207, October.
    6. Wirl, Franz, 1995. "Strategic consumers' reactions to conservation incentives," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 109-113, April.
    7. Wirl, Franz, 1999. "Conservation Incentives for Consumers," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 23-40, January.
    8. Stephen J. Decanio & William E. Watkins, 1998. "Investment In Energy Efficiency: Do The Characteristics Of Firms Matter?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 95-107, February.
    9. repec:aen:journl:2004v25-01-a02 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Zivin, Joshua Graff & Zilberman, David, 2002. "Optimal Environmental Health Regulations with Heterogeneous Populations: Treatment versus "Tagging"," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 455-476, May.
    11. Aalbers, Rob & van der Heijden, Eline & Potters, Jan & van Soest, Daan & Vollebergh, Herman, 2009. "Technology adoption subsidies: An experiment with managers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 431-442, May.
    12. repec:aen:journl:1996v17-03-a03 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    14. Morris M. Kleiner & Richard B. Freeman, 2000. "Who Benefits Most from Employee Involvement: Firms or Workers?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 219-223, May.
    15. Jerry A. Hausman, 1979. "Individual Discount Rates and the Purchase and Utilization of Energy-Using Durables," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 33-54, Spring.
    16. Sarnat, Marshall & Levy, Haim, 1969. "The Relationship of Rules of Thumb to the Internal Rate of Return: A Restatement and Generalization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 24(3), pages 479-490, June.
    17. Carl M. Campbell III & Kunal S. Kamlani, 1997. "The Reasons for Wage Rigidity: Evidence from a Survey of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 759-789.
    18. Newbery, David M., 2002. "Problems of liberalising the electricity industry," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 919-927, May.
    19. repec:aen:journl:1996v17-02-a05 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387, Enero-Abr.
    21. Frank J. Convery, 2011. "Reflections--Energy Efficiency Literature for Those in the Policy Process," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 172-191, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Uz, Dilek, 2018. "Energy efficiency investments in small and medium sized manufacturing firms: The case of California energy crisis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 421-428.
    2. Richard G. Newell & Juha Siikamäki, 2014. "Nudging Energy Efficiency Behavior: The Role of Information Labels," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 555-598.
    3. Liu, Yizao, 2014. "Household demand and willingness to pay for hybrid vehicles," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 191-197.
    4. Daan P. van Soest & Herman R.J. Vollebergh, 2011. "Energy Investment Behaviour: Firm Heterogeneity and Subsidy Design," Chapters, in: Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Henri L.F. de Groot & Peter Mulder (ed.), Improving Energy Efficiency through Technology, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Lucas W. Davis & James M. Sallee, 2020. "Should Electric Vehicle Drivers Pay a Mileage Tax?," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 65-94.
    6. Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & de Preux, Laure B. & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2012. "Anatomy of a paradox: Management practices, organizational structure and energy efficiency," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 208-223.
    7. Javid, Roxana J. & Nejat, Ali, 2017. "A comprehensive model of regional electric vehicle adoption and penetration," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 30-42.
    8. Mandys, F., 2021. "Electric vehicles and consumer choices," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    9. Gallagher, Kelly Sims & Muehlegger, Erich, 2011. "Giving green to get green? Incentives and consumer adoption of hybrid vehicle technology," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Wang, Jiaxing & Matsumoto, Shigeru, 2022. "Can subsidy programs lead consumers to select “greener” products?: Evidence from the Eco-car program in Japan," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    11. Li, Zhe & Ouyang, Minggao, 2011. "A win-win marginal rent analysis for operator and consumer under battery leasing mode in China electric vehicle market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3222-3237, June.
    12. Koon Hung Chan & Mingming Leng & Liping Liang, 2014. "Impact of tax reduction policies on consumer purchase of new automobiles: An analytical investigation with real data‐based experiments," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(8), pages 577-598, December.
    13. Muehlegger, Erich & Rapson, David S., 2022. "Subsidizing low- and middle-income adoption of electric vehicles: Quasi-experimental evidence from California," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    14. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    15. Shanjun Li & Joshua Linn & Erich Muehlegger, 2014. "Gasoline Taxes and Consumer Behavior," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 302-342, November.
    16. Münzel, Christiane & Plötz, Patrick & Sprei, Frances & Gnann, Till, 2019. "How large is the effect of financial incentives on electric vehicle sales? – A global review and European analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Lucas W. Davis, 2017. "The Environmental Cost of Global Fuel Subsidies," The Energy Journal, , vol. 38(1_suppl), pages 7-28, June.
    18. Ruijs, Arjan & Vollebergh, Herman, 2013. "Lessons from 15 Years of Experience with the Dutch Tax Allowance for Energy Investments for Firms," Energy: Resources and Markets 151533, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Vergis, Sydney & Chen, Belinda, 2015. "Comparison of plug-in electric vehicle adoption in the United States: A state by state approach," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 56-64.
    20. Chia-Wen Chen & Wei-Min Hu & Christopher R. Knittel, 2017. "Subsidizing Fuel Efficient Cars: Evidence from China's Automobile Industry," NBER Working Papers 23045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

    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:cpb:discus:194. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cpbgvnl.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.