IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p6954-d662393.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increasing Block Rate Electricity Pricing and Propensity to Purchase Electrical Appliances: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Russia

Author

Listed:
  • Salim Turdaliev

    (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Smetanovo nábřeží 6, 110 01 Prague, Czech Republic)

Abstract

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between the increasing-block-rate (IBR) pricing of electricity and the propensity of households to buy major electrical appliances. I use a variation from a natural experiment in Russia that introduced IBR pricing for residential electricity in a number of experimental regions in 2013. The study employs household-level panel data, which records, among others, whether the household has purchased any major electrical appliances during the last three months. Using a difference-in-differences specification, I show that the purchase of major electrical appliances in the regions with IBR pricing has increased by more than 20% (or more than two percentage points). The findings suggest that price-based energy policies may be an effective tool in shaping the behaviour of households.

Suggested Citation

  • Salim Turdaliev, 2021. "Increasing Block Rate Electricity Pricing and Propensity to Purchase Electrical Appliances: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Russia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6954-:d:662393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6954/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6954/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth Gillingham & Karen Palmer, 2014. "Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 8(1), pages 18-38, January.
    2. Christopher J. Gerry & Georgios Papadopoulos, 2015. "Sample attrition in the RLMS, 2001–10," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 23(2), pages 425-468, April.
    3. Jing Liang & Pengfei Liu & Yueming Qiu & Yi David Wang & Bo Xing, 2020. "Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing and Residential Low-carbon Energy Technology Adoption," The Energy Journal, , vol. 41(3), pages 1-38, May.
    4. Dubin, Jeffrey A & McFadden, Daniel L, 1984. "An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electric Appliance Holdings and Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(2), pages 345-362, March.
    5. Jerry A. Hausman, 1979. "Individual Discount Rates and the Purchase and Utilization of Energy-Using Durables," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 33-54, Spring.
    6. Sébastien Houde & Joseph E. Aldy, 2014. "Belt and Suspenders and More: The Incremental Impact of Energy Efficiency Subsidies in the Presence of Existing Policy Instruments," NBER Working Papers 20541, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Severin Borenstein, 2017. "Private Net Benefits of Residential Solar PV: The Role of Electricity Tariffs, Tax Incentives, and Rebates," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(S1), pages 85-122.
    8. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    9. Cohen, François & Glachant, Matthieu & Söderberg, Magnus, 2017. "The impact of energy prices on product innovation: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 81-88.
    10. Fran�ois Cohen & Matthieu Glachant & Magnus S�derberg, 2015. "The impact of energy prices on energy efficiency: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market," GRI Working Papers 179, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    11. Mansur, Erin T. & Olmstead, Sheila M., 2012. "The value of scarce water: Measuring the inefficiency of municipal regulations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 332-346.
    12. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    13. Rapson, David, 2014. "Durable goods and long-run electricity demand: Evidence from air conditioner purchase behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 141-160.
    14. Dermot Gately, 1980. "Individual Discount Rates and the Purchase and Utilization of Energy-Using Durables: Comment," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 373-374, Spring.
    15. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    16. Jacobsen, Grant D., 2015. "Do energy prices influence investment in energy efficiency? Evidence from energy star appliances," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 94-106.
    17. 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.
    18. Horrace, William C. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2006. "Results on the bias and inconsistency of ordinary least squares for the linear probability model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 321-327, March.
    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. António Gomes Martins & Luís Pires Neves & José Luís Sousa, 2023. "Electricity Demand Side Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-3, August.
    2. Elisabeta Spunei & Nătălița-Mihaela Frumușanu & Mihaela Martin, 2024. "Study on Household-Level Electricity Consumption of Domestic Consumers in Romania: The Need to Check the Electrical Installation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-30, May.

    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. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    2. Jacobsen, Grant D., 2015. "Do energy prices influence investment in energy efficiency? Evidence from energy star appliances," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 94-106.
    3. Houde, Sébastien & Myers, Erica, 2021. "Are consumers attentive to local energy costs? Evidence from the appliance market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    4. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2016. "Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 321-331.
    5. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    6. Allcott, Hunt & Mullainathan, Sendhil & Taubinsky, Dmitry, 2014. "Energy policy with externalities and internalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 72-88.
    7. Cohen, François & Glachant, Matthieu & Söderberg, Magnus, 2017. "Consumer myopia, imperfect competition and the energy efficiency gap: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-23.
    8. Basher, Syed Abul & Raboy, David G., 2018. "The misuse of net present value in energy efficiency standards," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 218-225.
    9. Jiaxing Wang & Makoto Sugino & Shigeru Matsumoto, 2019. "Determinants of household energy efficiency investment: analysis of refrigerator purchasing behavior," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 389-402, August.
    10. Fran�ois Cohen & Matthieu Glachant & Magnus S�derberg, 2015. "The impact of energy prices on energy efficiency: Evidence from the UK refrigerator market," GRI Working Papers 179, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    11. Huse, Cristian & Lucinda, Claudio & Cardoso, Andre Ribeiro, 2020. "Consumer response to energy label policies: Evidence from the Brazilian energy label program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    12. Ensieh Shojaeddini & Ben Gilbert, 2023. "Heterogeneity in the Rebound Effect: Evidence from Efficient Lighting Subsidies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(1), pages 173-217, January.
    13. Dimitris Damigos & Christina Kaliampakou & Anastasios Balaskas & Lefkothea Papada, 2021. "Does Energy Poverty Affect Energy Efficiency Investment Decisions? First Evidence from a Stated Choice Experiment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    14. Lucas W. Davis & Alan Fuchs & Paul J. Gertler, 2012. "Cash for Coolers," NBER Working Papers 18044, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Lucas W Davis, 2017. "Evidence of a decline in electricity use by U.S. households," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 1098-1105.
    16. Nicholas Rivers and Leslie Shiell, 2016. "Free-Riding on Energy Efficiency Subsidies: the Case of Natural Gas Furnaces in Canada," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    17. Filippini, Massimo & Kumar, Nilkanth & Srinivasan, Suchita, 2020. "Energy-related financial literacy and bounded rationality in appliance replacement attitudes: evidence from Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 399-422, August.
    18. Burlinson, Andrew & Giulietti, Monica & Battisti, Giuliana, 2018. "Technology adoption, consumer inattention and heuristic decision-making: Evidence from a UK district heating scheme," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 1873-1886.
    19. Li, Jia & Just, Richard E., 2018. "Modeling household energy consumption and adoption of energy efficient technology," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 404-415.
    20. Tsvetan Tsvetanov & Kathleen Segerson, 2014. "The Welfare Effects of Energy Efficiency Standards When Choice Sets Matter," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 233-271.

    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:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6954-:d:662393. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.