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The Rebound Effect for Passenger Vehicles

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  • Linn, Joshua

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

Increasingly stringent fuel economy standards will reduce per-mile driving costs and may raise vehicle miles traveled, which is referred to as the rebound effect. All previous estimates impose at least one of three behavioral assumptions: (a) fuel economy is uncorrelated with other vehicle attributes; (b) fuel economy is uncorrelated with attributes of other vehicles owned by the household; and (c) the effect of gasoline prices on vehicle miles traveled is inversely proportional to the effect of fuel economy. Relaxing these assumptions yields a large and robust rebound effect; a one percent fuel economy increase raises driving 0.2 to 0.4 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Linn, Joshua, 2013. "The Rebound Effect for Passenger Vehicles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-19, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-13-19
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    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-13-19.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Palmer, Karen & Walls, Margaret, 2015. "Can Benchmarking and Disclosure Laws Provide Incentives for Energy Efficiency Improvements in Buildings?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-09, Resources for the Future.
    2. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Stapleton, Lee & Sorrell, Steve & Schwanen, Tim, 2016. "Estimating direct rebound effects for personal automotive travel in Great Britain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 313-325.
    4. Vance, Colin & Frondel, Manuel, 2015. "From fuel taxation to efficiency standards: A wrong turn in European climate protection?," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113171, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Gillingham, Kenneth & Jenn, Alan & Azevedo, Inês M.L., 2015. "Heterogeneity in the response to gasoline prices: Evidence from Pennsylvania and implications for the rebound effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 41-52.
    6. Matthew E. Oliver & Juan Moreno-Cruz & Ross C. Beppler, 2019. "Microeconomics of the rebound effect for residential solar photovoltaic systems," CESifo Working Paper Series 7635, CESifo.
    7. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Substitution between cars within the household," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 135-156.
    8. Kenneth Gillingham & David Rapson & Gernot Wagner, 2016. "The Rebound Effect and Energy Efficiency Policy," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 68-88.
    9. Ghoddusi, Hamed & Roy, Mandira, 2017. "Supply elasticity matters for the rebound effect and its impact on policy comparisons," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 111-120.
    10. Gioele Figus & Patrizio Lecca & Karen Turner & Peter McGregor, 2016. "Increased energy efficiency in Scottish households: trading-off economic benefits and energy rebound effects?," EcoMod2016 9454, EcoMod.
    11. 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.
    12. Taiebat, Morteza & Stolper, Samuel & Xu, Ming, 2019. "Forecasting the Impact of Connected and Automated Vehicles on Energy Use: A Microeconomic Study of Induced Travel and Energy Rebound," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 297-308.
    13. Gioele Figus & Patrizio Lecca & Peter McGregor & Karen Turner, 2017. "Energy efficiency as an instrument of regional development policy? Trading-off the benefits of an economic stimulus and energy rebound effects," Working Papers 1702, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • R22 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Other Demand
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

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