Long run demand for energy services: income and price elasticities over two hundred years

Roger Fouquet

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article investigates how the demand for energy services has changed since the Industrial Revolution. It presents evidence on the income and price elasticities of demand for domestic heating, passenger transport, and lighting in the United Kingdom over the last two hundred years. As the economy developed and energy service prices fell, income elasticities have generally followed an inverse U-shape curve, and price elasticities have generally followed a U-shape curve. However, these general trends also appear to have been affected by energy and technological transitions, which boosted demand (by either encouraging poorer consumers to fully enter the market or offering new attributes of value to wealthier consumers). The evidence presented offers insights that will be helpful for identifying likely future trends in energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and for developing long-term climate policies.

Keywords: demand elasticity; energy use; income; price dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 N73 N74 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-his and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (75)

Published in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, July, 2014, 8(2), pp. 186-207. ISSN: 1750-6824

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:59070

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