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

Francois Cohen, Matthieu Glachant and Magnus Söderberg

Energy Economics, 2017, vol. 68, issue S1, 81-88

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 D22 L68 O33 Q41 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: 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:eee:eneeco:v:68:y:2017:i:s1:p:81-88

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2017.10.020

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