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Do liberal home owners consume less electricity? A test of the voluntary restraint hypothesis

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  • Costa, Dora L.
  • Kahn, Matthew E.

Abstract

Using a unique data set that merges an electric utility’s residential customer monthly electricity consumption in 2008 with household level data on demographics, structure and neighborhood characteristics and the political party of registration for the head of household, this paper documents that liberal households consume less electricity than observationally identical households. In the absence of first best carbon pricing, such “voluntary restraint” helps to mitigate the challenge of climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa, Dora L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2013. "Do liberal home owners consume less electricity? A test of the voluntary restraint hypothesis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 210-212.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:119:y:2013:i:2:p:210-212
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2013.02.020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kahn, Matthew E., 2007. "Do greens drive Hummers or hybrids? Environmental ideology as a determinant of consumer choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 129-145, September.
    2. Koichiro Ito, 2014. "Do Consumers Respond to Marginal or Average Price? Evidence from Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 537-563, February.
    3. Bryan Bollinger & Kenneth Gillingham, 2012. "Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 900-912, November.
    4. Kotchen, Matthew J. & Moore, Michael R., 2007. "Private provision of environmental public goods: Household participation in green-electricity programs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-16, January.
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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chapter Nine: Endogenous "Green" Preferences
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2013-08-04 21:10:00
    2. The Consequences of Ideology
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2014-08-13 20:18:00
    3. Moral Hazard and NBA Player Effort Before and After They Sign Long Term Contracts
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2017-01-06 22:14:00
    4. Voluntary Restraint in the Age of President Trump
      by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2017-04-03 07:53:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew J. Holian & Matthew E. Kahn, 2014. "Household Demand for Low Carbon Public Policies: Evidence from California," NBER Working Papers 19965, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Gunnar Gutsche, 2019. "Individual and Regional Christian Religion and the Consideration of Sustainable Criteria in Consumption and Investment Decisions: An Exploratory Econometric Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 1155-1182, July.
    3. Schmidt, Stephan & Weigt, Hannes, 2013. "A Review on Energy Consumption from a Socio-Economic Perspective: Reduction through Energy Efficiency and Beyond," Working papers 2013/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    4. Agarwal, Sumit & Satyanarain, Rengarajan & Sing, Tien Foo & Vollmer, Derek, 2016. "Effects of construction activities on residential electricity consumption: Evidence from Singapore's public housing estates," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 101-111.
    5. Cali Curley & Galib Rustamov & Nicky Harrison & Madeline Venable, 2020. "Susceptibility to Inattention: Unpacking Who is Susceptible to Inattention in Energy‐Based Electronic Billing," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(6), pages 744-764, November.
    6. von Loessl, Victor, 2023. "Smart meter-related data privacy concerns and dynamic electricity tariffs: Evidence from a stated choice experiment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Jacobsen, Grant D., 2020. "Market-based policies, public opinion, and information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    8. Conte, Marc N. & Jacobsen, Grant D., 2016. "Explaining Demand for Green Electricity Using Data from All U.S. Utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 122-130.
    9. Gunnar Gutsche & Anja Köbrich León & Andreas Ziegler, 2016. "On the relevance of psychological motives, values, and norms for socially responsible investments: An econometric analysis," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201641, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Ziegler, Andreas, 2019. "The Relevance of Attitudinal Factors for the Acceptance of Energy Policy Measures: A Micro-econometric Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 129-140.
    11. Groh, Elke D. & Ziegler, Andreas, 2022. "On the relevance of values, norms, and economic preferences for electricity consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Ziegler, Andreas, 2015. "On the relevance of ideology and environmental values for climate change beliefs, climate policy support, and climate protection activities: An empirical cross country analysis," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112918, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Andreas Ziegler, 2018. "Heterogeneous preferences and the individual change to alternative electricity contracts," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201827, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    14. Papineau, Maya & Yassin, Kareman & Newsham, Guy & Brice, Sarah, 2021. "Conditional demand analysis as a tool to evaluate energy policy options on the path to grid decarbonization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Brewer, Dylan, 2023. "Household responses to winter heating costs: Implications for energy pricing policies and demand-side alternatives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    16. Matthew J. Holian & Matthew E. Kahn, 2015. "Household Demand for Low Carbon Policies: Evidence from California," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 205-234.
    17. Andreas Ziegler, 2017. "Economic calculus or personal and social values? A micro-econometric analysis of the acceptance of climate and energy policy measures," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201716, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    18. Yamamura, Eiji, 2014. "Time preference and perceptions about government spending and tax: Smokers’ dependence on government support," MPRA Paper 55659, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Ziegler, Andreas, 2020. "Heterogeneous preferences and the individual change to alternative electricity contracts," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Andreas Ziegler, 2015. "On the relevance of ideological identification and environmental values for beliefs and attitudes toward climate change: An empirical cross country analysis," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201516, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    21. Ziegler, Andreas, 2017. "Political orientation, environmental values, and climate change beliefs and attitudes: An empirical cross country analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 144-153.
    22. Ziegler, Andreas, 2018. "Heterogeneous preferences and the individual change to alternative electricity tariffs," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181604, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    23. Groh, Elke D. & Ziegler, Andreas, 2020. "On the relevance of economic preferences, values, norms, and socio-demographics for electricity consumption," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224587, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity consumption; Ideology; Environmentalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

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