IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v36y2014icp272-282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The price of energy efficiency in the Spanish car market

Author

Listed:
  • Galarraga, Ibon
  • Ramos, Ana
  • Lucas, Josu
  • Labandeira, Xavier

Abstract

Due to climate change, energy dependence and other energy-related issues, most developed countries are attempting to reduce fossil-fuel use in the transport sector. Accordingly, there are several instruments that have been in place for many years, such as mandatory design standards, taxes on fuels, car purchase and ownership, and energy efficiency labels. Yet it is still not clear whether consumers value energy efficiency as a characteristic of vehicles. In this paper we use the European labelling system for light vehicles, which classifies automobiles according to their relative fuel consumption levels, as a novel, alternative indicator for energy efficiency. Moreover, we use a unique database that incorporates official commercial prices along with prices obtained through ‘mystery shopping’ at a selection of Spanish car retailers. We apply the hedonic price method to this database to estimate the price functions for vehicles and thereby obtain the marginal price of vehicles rated highly in terms of energy efficiency. Our results show that vehicles labelled A and B are sold at prices 3 to 5.9 percent higher than those with similar characteristics but lower energy-efficiency labels.

Suggested Citation

  • Galarraga, Ibon & Ramos, Ana & Lucas, Josu & Labandeira, Xavier, 2014. "The price of energy efficiency in the Spanish car market," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 272-282.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:36:y:2014:i:c:p:272-282
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X14001929
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.09.003?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Franz Fuerst & Patrick McAllister, 2011. "Green Noise or Green Value? Measuring the Effects of Environmental Certification on Office Values," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 45-69, March.
    2. Mario Izquierdo & Omar Licandro & Alberto Maydeu, 2001. "Car quality improvements and price indices in Spain," Estudios Económicos, Banco de España, number 72.
    3. Molly Espey & Santosh Nair, 2005. "Automobile Fuel Economy: What Is It Worth?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(3), pages 317-323, July.
    4. Arguea, Nestor M. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1993. "Econometric issues of estimating hedonic price functions : With an application to the U.S. market for automobiles," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1-2), pages 243-267, March.
    5. Martin Achtnicht, 2012. "German car buyers’ willingness to pay to reduce CO 2 emissions," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 679-697, August.
    6. Caulfield, Brian & Farrell, Séona & McMahon, Brian, 2010. "Examining individuals preferences for hybrid electric and alternatively fuelled vehicles," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 381-387, November.
    7. Chugh, Randy & Cropper, Maureen & Narain, Urvashi, 2011. "The cost of fuel economy in the Indian passenger vehicle market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7174-7183.
    8. Reis, Hugo J. & Santos Silva, J.M.C., 2006. "Hedonic prices indexes for new passenger cars in Portugal (1997-2001)," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 890-908, December.
    9. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    10. Proost, Stef & Van Dender, Kurt, 2012. "Energy and environment challenges in the transport sector," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87.
    11. Manuel Frondel & Jorg Peters & Colin Vance, 2008. "Identifying the Rebound: Evidence from a German Household Panel," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 145-164.
    12. Rogan, Fionn & Dennehy, Emer & Daly, Hannah & Howley, Martin & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P., 2011. "Impacts of an emission based private car taxation policy - First year ex-post analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 583-597, August.
    13. Ibon Galarraga & David Heres Del Valle & Mikel González-Eguino, 2011. "Price Premium for High-Efficiency Refrigerators and Calculation of Price-Elasticities for Close-Substitutes: Combining Hedonic Pricing and Demand Systems," Working Papers 2011-07, BC3.
    14. van der Vooren, A. & Alkemade, F. & Hekkert, M.P., 2013. "Environmental performance and firm strategies in the dutch automotive sector," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 111-126.
    15. Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok & John M. Quigley, 2010. "Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2492-2509, December.
    16. Zvi Griliches, 1964. "Notes on the Measurement of Price and Quality Changes," NBER Chapters, in: Models of Income Determination, pages 381-418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Roger Fouquet (ed.), 2013. "Handbook on Energy and Climate Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14429.
    18. Alberini, Anna & Bareit, Markus & Filippini, Massimo, 2014. "Does the Swiss Car Market Reward Fuel Efficient Cars?," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 165756, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Gilmore, Elisabeth A. & Lave, Lester B., 2013. "Comparing resale prices and total cost of ownership for gasoline, hybrid and diesel passenger cars and trucks," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 200-208.
    20. Anna Matas & Josep-Lluis Raymond, 2009. "Hedonic prices for cars: an application to the Spanish car market, 1981-2005," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(22), pages 2887-2904.
    21. Anna Alberini & Markus Bareit & Massimo Filippini, 2014. "Does the Swiss Car Market Reward Fuel Efficient Cars? Evidence from Hedonic Pricing Regressions, a Regression Discontinuity Design, and Matching," Working Papers 2014.16, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    22. Makoto Ohta, 1983. "Automobile Prices and Quality: Did the Gasoline Price Increase Change Consumer Tastes in the U.S.?," NBER Working Papers 1211, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Schipper, Lee, 2011. "Automobile use, fuel economy and CO2 emissions in industrialized countries: Encouraging trends through 2008?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 358-372, March.
    24. Galarraga, Ibon & González-Eguino, Mikel & Markandya, Anil, 2011. "Willingness to pay and price elasticities of demand for energy-efficient appliances: Combining the hedonic approach and demand systems," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(S1), pages 66-74.
    25. Mario Izquierdo & Omar Licandro & Alberto Maydeu, 2001. "Car quality improvements and price indices in Spain," Estudios Económicos, Banco de España, number 72.
    26. Liu, Yimin & Helfand, Gloria E., 2012. "A hedonic test of the effects of the Alternative Motor Fuels Act," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1707-1715.
    27. Atkinson, Scott E & Halvorsen, Robert, 1984. "A New Hedonic Technique for Estimating Attribute Demand: An Application to the Demand for Automobile Fuel Efficiency," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 417-426, August.
    28. Anna Alberini & Massimo Filippini & Markus Bareit, 2014. "Does the Swiss Car Market Reward Fuel Efficient Cars? Evidence from Hedonic Pricing Regressions, Matching and a Regression Discontinuity Design," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/190, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    29. James A. Kahn, 1986. "Gasoline Prices and the Used Automobile Market: A Rational Expectations Asset Price Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(2), pages 323-339.
    30. Baltas, George & Saridakis, Charalampos, 2013. "An empirical investigation of the impact of behavioural and psychographic consumer characteristics on car preferences: An integrated model of car type choice," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 92-110.
    31. Zvi Griliches, 1961. "Hedonic Price Indexes for Automobiles: An Econometric of Quality Change," NBER Chapters, in: The Price Statistics of the Federal Goverment, pages 173-196, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    32. Jaffe, Adam B. & Stavins, Robert N., 1994. "The energy-efficiency gap What does it mean?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 804-810, October.
    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. Cristiano Codagnone & Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri & Francesco Bogliacino & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva & George Gaskell & Andriy Ivchenko & Pietro Ortoleva & Francesco Mureddu, 2016. "Labels as nudges? An experimental study of car eco-labels," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(3), pages 403-432, December.
    2. Weinrich, Ramona & Spiller, Achim, 2016. "Can a Multi-Level Label do Better than a Binary Label for Animal Welfare? A PLS-Analysis of Consumer Satisfaction," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Giuliano Rolle, 2022. "Between and within vehicle models hedonic analyses of environmental attributes: the case of the Italian used-car market," SEEDS Working Papers 0822, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Aug 2022.
    4. Svetlana Ratner & Konstantin Gomonov & Svetlana Revinova, 2023. "Public Funding for Energy Innovation and Decarbonization Goals: A Coherence Challenge," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 40-45, July.
    5. Arawomo, Damilola F. & Osigwe, Augustine C., 2016. "Nexus of fuel consumption, car features and car prices: Evidence from major institutions in Ibadan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1220-1228.
    6. Ramos, A. & Gago, A. & Labandeira, X. & Linares, P., 2015. "The role of information for energy efficiency in the residential sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 17-29.
    7. Galarraga, Ibon & Kallbekken, Steffen & Silvestri, Alessandro, 2020. "Consumer purchases of energy-efficient cars: How different labelling schemes could affect consumer response to price changes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Anna Matas & José-Luis Raymond & Andrés Domínguez, 2016. "Changes in fuel economy: An analysis of the Spanish car market," Working Papers 2016/15, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    9. De Silva, M. Mavin & Herath, Oshadhi K. & Nakayama, Tadachika & Kumarage, Amal S., 2024. "A system dynamics model for vehicle fleet transformation towards energy efficiency and low-carbon development: A case study of Sri Lanka and its strategies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 244-258.
    10. Galarraga, Ibon & Abadie, Luis M. & Kallbekken, Steffen, 2016. "Designing incentive schemes for promoting energy-efficient appliances: A new methodology and a case study for Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 24-36.
    11. de Ayala, Amaia & Galarraga, Ibon & Spadaro, Joseph V., 2016. "The price of energy efficiency in the Spanish housing market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 16-24.
    12. Anil Markandya & Xavier Labandeira & Ana Ramos, 2013. "Policy Instruments to Foster Energy Efficiency," Working Papers 01-2014, Economics for Energy.
    13. Haq, Gary & Weiss, Martin, 2016. "CO2 labelling of passenger cars in Europe: Status, challenges, and future prospects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 324-335.

    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. de Ayala, Amaia & Galarraga, Ibon & Spadaro, Joseph V., 2016. "The price of energy efficiency in the Spanish housing market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 16-24.
    2. Anna Alberini & Markus Bareit & Massimo Filippini, 2016. "What is the Effect of Fuel Efficiency Information on Car Prices? Evidence from Switzerland," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(3), pages 315-342, July.
    3. Ramos, A. & Gago, A. & Labandeira, X. & Linares, P., 2015. "The role of information for energy efficiency in the residential sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 17-29.
    4. Ramírez Muñoz de Toro, Gonzalo R. & Uriarte, Juan I. & Delbianco, Fernando & Larrosa, Juan M.C., 2017. "Un modelo hedónico de precios en línea de automóviles usados en Argentina || A Hedonic Model of Online Prices of Used Cars in Argentina," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 24(1), pages 25-53, Diciembre.
    5. Giuliano Rolle, 2022. "Between and within vehicle models hedonic analyses of environmental attributes: the case of the Italian used-car market," SEEDS Working Papers 0822, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Aug 2022.
    6. Arawomo, Damilola F. & Osigwe, Augustine C., 2016. "Nexus of fuel consumption, car features and car prices: Evidence from major institutions in Ibadan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1220-1228.
    7. Anna Alberini & Markus Bareit & Massimo Filippini, 2014. "Does the Swiss Car Market Reward Fuel Efficient Cars? Evidence from Hedonic Pricing Regressions, a Regression Discontinuity Design, and Matching," Working Papers 2014.16, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    8. Anna Alberini & Massimo Filippini & Markus Bareit, 2014. "Does the Swiss Car Market Reward Fuel Efficient Cars? Evidence from Hedonic Pricing Regressions, Matching and a Regression Discontinuity Design," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/190, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    9. Xosé-Luís Varela-Irimia, 2014. "Age effects, unobserved characteristics and hedonic price indexes: The Spanish car market in the 1990s," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 419-455, November.
    10. Anil Markandya & Xavier Labandeira & Ana Ramos, 2013. "Policy Instruments to Foster Energy Efficiency," Working Papers 01-2014, Economics for Energy.
    11. Weber, Sylvain, 2019. "Consumers' preferences on the Swiss car market: A revealed preference approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 109-118.
    12. Cicia, Gianni & Caracciolo, Francesco & Del Giudice, Teresa & Sannino, G. & Verneau, Fabio, 2013. "The Role of Sensory Profile in the Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Consumers Choice," 2013 International European Forum, February 18-22, 2013, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 164738, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    13. Marie Hyland & Anna Alberini & Se n Lyons, 2016. "The Effect of Energy Efficiency Labeling: Bunching and Prices in the Irish Residential Property Market," Trinity Economics Papers tep0516, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2016.
    14. Kurz, Claudia, 2017. "Finanzielle Anreizwirkung der Förderung von Elektromobilität durch die Bundesregierung: Empirische Evidenz bezüglich der Umweltprämie und der Kfz-Steuerbefreiung," UASM Discussion Paper Series 6/2017, University of Applied Sciences Mainz.
    15. Reis, Hugo J. & Santos Silva, J.M.C., 2006. "Hedonic prices indexes for new passenger cars in Portugal (1997-2001)," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 890-908, December.
    16. Ana Ramos & Alicia Pérez-Alonso & Susana Silva, 2015. "Valuing Energy Performance Certificates in the Portuguese Residential," Working Papers 02-2015, Economics for Energy.
    17. Ana Ramos & Xavier Labandeira & Andreas Löschel, 2016. "Pro-environmental Households and Energy Efficiency in Spain," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 367-393, February.
    18. Hyland, Marie & Lyons, Ronan C. & Lyons, Seán, 2013. "The value of domestic building energy efficiency — evidence from Ireland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 943-952.
    19. Gerarden, Todd D. & Newell, Richard G. & Stavins, Robert N. & Stowe, Robert C., 2015. "An Assessment of the Energy-Efficiency Gap and Its Implications for Climate Change Policy," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 202116, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    20. Aydin, Erdal & Brounen, Dirk & Kok, Nils, 2020. "The capitalization of energy efficiency: Evidence from the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spain; Transport; Energy; Efficiency; Hedonic methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    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:trapol:v:36:y:2014:i:c:p:272-282. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    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.