IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v140y2024ics0140988324007308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wealth maximisation and residential energy-efficiency retrofits: Insights from a real options model

Author

Listed:
  • Britto, Anthony
  • Dehler-Holland, Joris
  • Fichtner, Wolf

Abstract

The slow adoption of residential energy-efficiency retrofits continues to hamper the energy transition. We study incentives for adoption by proposing a model of optimal investment under uncertainty where the wealth-maximising agent has the option to delay. Stochastic portfolio returns and energy prices are taken into account. An extension of the model where the energy carrier is switched, e.g. from gas to electricity, is also considered. Exercise boundaries for the optimal stopping problem are estimated numerically for recent case studies of German buildings. Investment is generally not optimal at current energy prices and market conditions. Increasing correlation between gas and electricity prices erodes the value of technology switching. Comparative statics reveal that energy-efficiency investments become optimal at relatively lower energy prices as wealth, income, and savings behaviour increase, and portfolio drift and volatility decrease. Consequently, incentive to invest in retrofits is far more heterogeneous along wealth dimensions than standard discounted cash flow analyses suggest. An examination of retrofit subsidies demonstrates how free-riding by wealthier agents occurs when subsidies are not appropriately targeted. We show that the pursuit of economic efficiency in subsidy design might have regressive effects on the wealth distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Britto, Anthony & Dehler-Holland, Joris & Fichtner, Wolf, 2024. "Wealth maximisation and residential energy-efficiency retrofits: Insights from a real options model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:140:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324007308
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2024.108022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988324007308
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.108022?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy-efficiency gap; Building retrofits; Wealth maximisation; Optimal stopping; Real options;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • C44 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Operations Research; Statistical Decision Theory
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    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:eee:eneeco:v:140:y:2024:i:c:s0140988324007308. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.