How green is your house? Mandatory energy performance certificates and energy consumption

Sven Damen

ERES from European Real Estate Society (ERES)

Abstract: Mandatory energy performance certification for buildings is increasingly used in many countries and is seen as a key policy instrument for reducing energy consumption. Despite the widespread use, empirical evidence on whether or not mandatory certification reduces residential energy consumption is nonexistent. I study the introduction of mandatory energy performance certificates since November 2008 in Flanders, Belgium. I find that houses that were sold after mandatory certification consume 6% less energy. The lower energy consumption is mainly due to lower expenditures on fossil fuels. The results are robust to a whole range of possible alternative explanations such as pre-trends and changes in energy prices or subsidies over time.

Keywords: Energy Efficiency; mandatory energy performance certificates; residential energy consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
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