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Willingness-to-Pay for Energy Conservation and Free-Ridership on Subsidization – Evidence from Germany

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  • Grösche, Peter
  • Vance, Colin

Abstract

Understanding the determinants of home-efficiency improvements is significant to a range of energy policy issues, including the reduction of fossil fuel use and environmental protection. This paper analyzes retrofit choices by assembling a unique data set merging a nationwide household survey from Germany with regional data on wages and construction costs. To explore the influence of both heterogeneous preferences and correlation among the utility of alternatives, conditional-, random parameters-, and error components logit models are estimated that parameterize the influence of costs, energy savings, and household-level socioeconomic attributes on the likelihood of undertaking one of 16 renovation options. We use the model coefficients to derive household-specific marginal willingness-to-pay estimates, and with these assess the extent to which free-ridership may undermine the effectiveness of recently implemented programs that subsidize the costs of retrofits.

Suggested Citation

  • Grösche, Peter & Vance, Colin, 2008. "Willingness-to-Pay for Energy Conservation and Free-Ridership on Subsidization – Evidence from Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 58, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:rwirep:58
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    Cited by:

    1. Chlond, Bettina & Gavard, Claire & Jeuck, Lisa, 2021. "Supporting residential energy conservation under constrained public budget: Cost-effectiveness and redistribution analysis of public financial schemes in France," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-056, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Pedro Linares & Xavier Labandeira, 2010. "Energy Efficiency: Economics And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 573-592, July.
    3. Bettina Chlond & Claire Gavard & Lisa Jeuck, 2023. "How to Support Residential Energy Conservation Cost-Effectively? An analysis of Public Financial Schemes in France," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(1), pages 29-63, May.
    4. Achtnicht, Martin & Madlener, Reinhard, 2014. "Factors influencing German house owners' preferences on energy retrofits," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 254-263.
    5. Robert Baumhof & Thomas Decker & Klaus Menrad, 2019. "A Comparative Analysis of House Owners in Need of Energy Efficiency Measures but with Different Intentions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, June.
    6. Klingler, Anna-Lena, 2017. "Self-consumption with PV+Battery systems: A market diffusion model considering individual consumer behaviour and preferences," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1560-1570.

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    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

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