Distributional Benefits of Rooftop Solar Capacity

Travis E. Dauwalter and Robert Harris

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2023, vol. 10, issue 2, 487 - 523

Abstract: This paper explores the distribution of environmental benefits created by rooftop solar capacity in the United States. We find that benefits are increasing with income, indicating regressivity, but that households of color receive greater per capita benefits on average. Moreover, we document minimal efficiency-equity trade-off: capacity allocations that maximize total environmental benefits are nearly identical to allocations that maximize benefits received by disadvantaged groups. Thus, existing solar capacity forgoes up to $2 billion annually in environmental benefits as well as substantial improvements in distributional outcomes, further suggesting that the suboptimality of existing solar policy cannot be rationalized on equity grounds.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721604 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721604 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

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:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/721604

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().