Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter?

Salomé Bakaloglou () and Dorothée Charlier ()
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Salomé Bakaloglou: CSTB-Université de Montpellier-Chaire économie du climat

No 2018.05, Working Papers from FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

Abstract: The aim of this research is to understand the weight of preference heterogeneity in explaining energy consumption in French homes. Using a discrete-continuous model and the conditional mixed-process estimator (CMP) allows us to tackle two potential endogeneities in residential energy consumption: energy prices and the choice of equipment. As a major contribution, we provide evidence that preferences for comfort over energy savings do have significant direct and indirect impacts on energy consumption, especially for high-income households. Preferring comfort over economy or one additional degree of heating implies an average energy overconsumption of 10% and 7.8% respectively, up to 36% for high-income households. Our results strengthen the belief that household heterogeneity is a substantial factor in explaining energy consumption and could have meaningful implications for the design of public policy tools aimed at reducing energy consumption in the residential sector

Keywords: residential energy consumption; household preferences; discrete-continuous choice method; conditional mixed process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C26 D12 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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http://faere.fr/pub/WorkingPapers/Bakaloglou_Charlier_FAERE_WP2018.05.pdf First version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter? (2019)
Working Paper: Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much Do Individual Preferences Matter? (2018)
Working Paper: Energy Consumption in the French Residential Sector: How Much do Individual Preferences Matter? (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fae:wpaper:2018.05

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