Factors affecting renters’ electricity use: more than split incentives

Rohan Best, Paul Burke () and Shuhei Nishitateno

CAMA Working Papers from Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: This paper uses data from the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey to explore the extent to which renters’ electricity use in the United States exceeds that of otherwise similar non-renters. Renting households are found to use approximately 9% more electricity than non-renters when controlling for location, socioeconomic, and many appliance-quantity controls. There are multiple factors that explain this extra electricity use, including inferior energy efficiency of appliances, behavioural factors, differences in bill payment responsibilities, and additional reliance by renters on electric space and water heaters. The paper finds that none of these factors are dominant. The phenomenon of renters’ (conditionally) higher electricity use is thus best understood as one that emerges from multiple sources.

Keywords: Split incentives; rent; electricity consumption; efficiency; household survey; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://cama.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/fil ... urke_nishitateno.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Factors Affecting Renters’ Electricity Use: More Than Split Incentives (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:camaaa:2020-82

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