Consumer myopia, imperfect competition and the energy efficiency gap: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market

Francois Cohen, Matthieu Glachant and Magnus Söderberg

European Economic Review, 2017, vol. 93, issue C, 1-23

Abstract: The empirical literature on the energy efficiency gap concentrates on demand inefficiencies in the energy-using durables markets and finds evidence that consumers underestimate future energy costs when purchasing a new appliance. We take a broader view and also consider the impact of imperfect competition. Using data on the UK refrigerator market (2002–2007), we find that the average energy consumption of appliances sold during this period was only 7.2% higher than what would have been observed under a scenario with a perfectly competitive market and non-myopic consumers. One reason for this small gap is that market power actually reduces energy use.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; Electricity prices; Consumer myopia; Imperfect competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L68 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292117300107
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Consumer myopia, imperfect competition and the energy efficiency gap: evidence from the UK refrigerator market (2017)
Working Paper: Consumer myopia, imperfect competition and the energy efficiency gap: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market (2017)
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:eecrev:v:93:y:2017:i:c:p:1-23

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.01.004

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().