The impact of energy prices on product innovation: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market

Francois Cohen, Matthieu Glachant and Magnus Söderberg

No 50-2017, CIES Research Paper series from Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute

Abstract: This paper uses product-level data from the UK refrigerator market to evaluate the impact of electricity prices on product innovation. Our best estimate is that a 10% increase in the electricity price reduces the average energy consumption of commercialized refrigerator models by 2%. A large share of this reduction is explained by a reduction of freezing space. We also show that the exit of energy-inefficient products contributes more to energy reduction than the launch of new energy-efficient models. These findings suggest that innovation – the development of better technologies embodied in new products – does not respond strongly to energy price variations.

Keywords: Induced Innovation; Energy Efficiency; Electricity Prices; Multiple Imputations; Product entry and exit. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L68 Q41 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2017-06-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-eur, nep-ino and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of energy prices on product innovation: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market (2017)
Working Paper: The impact of energy prices on product innovation: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_51

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