The rebound effect

David Stern

Chapter 118 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Energy Economics, 2025, pp 446-448 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Cost-reducing improvements in energy efficiency usually result in a rebound effect, meaning that the resulting reduction in energy use is less than that implied by the improvement in efficiency itself. The size of the economy-wide rebound effect is crucial for estimating the contribution that energy efficiency improvements can make to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for understanding the drivers of energy use. Jevons first argued in 1865 that improvements in energy efficiency increase total energy use, and in recent decades researchers have argued for and against this “backfire” hypothesis. Some recent studies find a large economy-wide rebound, around 100 per cent, but more research is needed to confirm or refute these results.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; Technological change; Climate change; Energy use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035310364
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035310371.000123 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:22238_118

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().