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Accidental Environmentalists? Californian Demand for Teslas and Solar Panels

Author

Listed:
  • Magali A. Delmas
  • Matthew E. Kahn
  • Stephen Locke

Abstract

In the absence of a national carbon tax, household driving and electricity consumption impose social costs. Suburbanites drive more and consume more electricity than center city residents. If more suburbanites purchase electric vehicles (EV) and install solar panels, then their greenhouse gas emissions would sharply decrease. Using several data sets from California, we study the demand for electric vehicles and solar panels. We focus on the Tesla given its status as the highest quality EV. We investigate the joint distribution of the stock returns of Tesla and leading solar panel sellers to test for whether investors anticipate a complementarity in sales between these products. Finally, we use current and past vehicle quality and price data to explore trends in EV quality improvements due to industry competition between brands.

Suggested Citation

  • Magali A. Delmas & Matthew E. Kahn & Stephen Locke, 2014. "Accidental Environmentalists? Californian Demand for Teslas and Solar Panels," NBER Working Papers 20754, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20754
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Back to Research
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2015-03-18 02:37:00
    2. An Economic Analysis of California's GHG Reductions Goals
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2015-04-30 01:52:00
    3. Weitzman on "When does the world wake up and address climate change?"
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2015-06-04 20:50:00
    4. The Economics of Red State vs. Blue State Carbon Politics
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2015-10-23 18:40:00
    5. U.S Climate Politics: An Economist's Perspective
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2016-01-05 22:05:00
    6. Does the Tesla + Solar City Merger = A Big Green Lobbying Machine?
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2016-08-05 22:04:00
    7. Announcing the Formation of Climate Economics: A New Climate Resilience Consulting Firm
      by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2020-10-08 18:28:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew J. Holian & Matthew E. Kahn, 2015. "Household Demand for Low Carbon Policies: Evidence from California," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 205-234.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics

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