Designing energy efficiency subsidy programmes: The factors of transaction costs

Michaela Valentová, Lubomir Lizal and Jaroslav Knápek

Energy Policy, 2018, vol. 120, issue C, 382-391

Abstract: Transaction costs are perceived as one of the main barriers in achieving energy efficiency. Hence, the omission of transaction costs in the evaluation (and preparation) of energy efficiency policies leads to suboptimal decision-making. However, empirical evidence on the main factors influencing transaction costs of energy efficiency programmes remains insufficient. By investigating two cases of major energy efficiency subsidy programmes in the Czech Republic, we analyse the role of two factors influencing the transaction costs: size of the projects and type of actors. The results show that while the dependence between the size of the projects and the size of transaction costs is rather straightforward, the role of actors is more complex. On one hand, no significant difference has been found between total transaction costs of the two types of actors entering the analysed programmes (private companies and public entities). Our results imply the potential for optimization of transaction costs in energy efficiency subsidy programmes lies in streamlining the internal processes (especially in the preparatory phase and in public tenders) and a clear legal environment. On the other hand, differences between the two entities were found in the costs of external services, indicating a room for optimization for public bodies.

Keywords: Transaction costs; Energy efficiency; Policy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518302714
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:120:y:2018:i:c:p:382-391

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.04.055

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().