IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v13y2021i4p152-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subsidizing Fuel-Efficient Cars: Evidence from China's Automobile Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Chia-Wen Chen
  • Wei-Min Hu
  • Christopher R. Knittel

Abstract

This paper examines the response of vehicle purchase behavior to China's largest national subsidy program for fuel-efficient vehicles during 2010 and 2011. Using variation from the program's eligibility cutoffs and the rollout of the subsidy program, the program is found to boost sales for subsidized vehicle models, but also to create a substitution effect within highly fuel-efficient vehicles. Estimates imply that ignoring the substitution effect would lead one to conclude that the program is welfare enhancing, whereas in fact the marginal cost of the program exceeds the marginal benefit by as much as 300 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Chia-Wen Chen & Wei-Min Hu & Christopher R. Knittel, 2021. "Subsidizing Fuel-Efficient Cars: Evidence from China's Automobile Industry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 152-184, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:152-84
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170098
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170098
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E127421V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170098.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170098.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20170098?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark R. Jacobsen, 2013. "Fuel Economy and Safety: The Influences of Vehicle Class and Driver Behavior," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Wei-Min Hu & Junji Xiao & Xiaolan Zhou, 2014. "Collusion or Competition? Interfirm Relationships in the Chinese Auto Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 1-40, March.
    3. Koichiro Ito & James M. Sallee, 2018. "The Economics of Attribute-Based Regulation: Theory and Evidence from Fuel Economy Standards," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 319-336, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gøril L. Andreassen & Jo Thori Lind, 2024. "Climate, Technology and Value: Insights from the First Decade with Mass-Consumption of Electric Vehicles," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(7), pages 1783-1844, July.
    2. Peter Haan & Adrián Santonja & Aleksandar Zaklan, 2023. "Effectiveness and Heterogeneous Effects of Purchase Grants for Electric Vehicles," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2032, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Peter Haan & Adrián Santonja & Aleksandar Zaklan, 2025. "Effectiveness and Heterogeneous Effects of Purchase Grants for Electric Vehicles," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(1), pages 185-223, January.
    4. Konishi, Yoshifumi & Kuroda, Sho, 2023. "Why is Japan’s carbon emissions from road transportation declining?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    5. Wu, Jingwen & Zhang, Tong & Liao, Hua, 2024. "Fuel economy standards: Regulatory loopholes and firms’ heterogeneous responses," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    6. Patrick Bigler & Doina Maria Radulescu, 2022. "Environmental, Redistributive and Revenue Effects of Policies Promoting Fuel Efficient and Electric Vehicles," CESifo Working Paper Series 9645, CESifo.
    7. Rik L. Rozendaal & Herman R. J. Vollebergh, 2021. "Policy-Induced Innovation in Clean Technologies: Evidence from the Car Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 9422, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio M. Bento & Mark R. Jacobsen & Christopher R. Knittel & Arthur A. van Benthem, 2020. "Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Fuel-Economy Standards," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 129-157.
    2. Wu, Jingwen & Zhang, Tong & Liao, Hua, 2024. "Fuel economy standards: Regulatory loopholes and firms’ heterogeneous responses," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Kellogg, Ryan, 2018. "Gasoline price uncertainty and the design of fuel economy standards," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 14-32.
    4. Xu, Jiayi & Tan-Soo, Jie-Sheng & Chu, Yanlai & Zhang, Xiao-Bing, 2023. "Gasoline price and fuel economy of new automobiles: Evidence from Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Durrmeyer, Isis & Samano, Mario, 2016. "To Rebate or Not to Rebate: Fuel Economy Standards vs. Feebates?," TSE Working Papers 16-732, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised May 2017.
    6. Kellogg, Ryan, 2020. "Output and attribute-based carbon regulation under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    7. Xiao, Junji & Ju, Heng, 2016. "The determinants of dealership structure: Empirical analysis of the Chinese auto market," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 961-981.
    8. Andrea Baranzini & Stefano Carattini & Linda Tesauro, 2021. "Designing Effective and Acceptable Road Pricing Schemes: Evidence from the Geneva Congestion Charge," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(3), pages 417-482, July.
    9. Daniel John Zizzo & Melanie Parravano & Ryota Nakamura & Suzanna Forwood & Marc Suhrcke, 2021. "The impact of taxation and signposting on diet: an online field study with breakfast cereals and soft drinks," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1294-1324, December.
    10. Bovay, John, 2021. "Moral hazard under discrete information disclosure: Evidence from food-safety inspections," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 307948, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. John Bovay, 2025. "Shaming, stringency, and shirking: Evidence from food‐safety inspections," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(1), pages 152-180, January.
    12. Winston, Clifford & Yan, Jia, 2021. "Vehicle size choice and automobile externalities: A dynamic analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 196-218.
    13. Bertanha, Marinho & McCallum, Andrew H. & Seegert, Nathan, 2023. "Better bunching, nicer notching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 237(2).
    14. Raphael Calel & Jonathan Colmer & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2025. "Do Carbon Offsets Offset Carbon?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 1-40, January.
    15. Choi, Jong Hae & Wang, Kun & Xia, Wenyi & Zhang, Anming, 2019. "Determining factors of air passengers’ transfer airport choice in the Southeast Asia – North America market: Managerial and policy implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 203-216.
    16. Lucas W. Davis & Christopher R. Knittel, 2019. "Are Fuel Economy Standards Regressive?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(S1), pages 37-63.
    17. Vikram Maheshri & Clifford Winston, 2016. "Did the Great Recession keep bad drivers off the road?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 255-280, June.
    18. Aney, Madhav S. & Ho, Christine, 2019. "Deadlier road accidents? Traffic safety regulations and heterogeneous motorists’ behavior," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 155-171.
    19. Antonio Bento & Kenneth Gillingham & Kevin Roth, 2017. "The Effect of Fuel Economy Standards on Vehicle Weight Dispersion and Accident Fatalities," NBER Working Papers 23340, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Mark R. Jacobsen & Christopher R. Knittel & James M. Sallee & Arthur A. van Benthem, 2016. "Sufficient Statistics for Imperfect Externality-Correcting Policies," NBER Working Papers 22063, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L62 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Automobiles; Other Transportation Equipment; Related Parts and Equipment
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • P23 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Factor and Product Markets; Industry Studies; Population
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:152-84. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.