IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v45y2024i1p125-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decarbonizing the Residential Sector: How Prominent is Household Energy-Saving Behavior in Decision Making?

Author

Listed:
  • Fateh Belaïd

Abstract

In addition to scrutinizing the decision process behind energy efficiency investment, this study investigates its association with energy-saving behavior. Its conceptual underpinnings are based on the intersection of behavioral change and “energy efficiency paradox†theories. Based upon a rich, disaggregated dataset representative of the French housing sector, it develops an energy-saving score based on the item response theory model, which considers household attributes and ability levels. Then this score is used as an independent factor of a multivariate probit model to examine the drivers of household investment decisions for various energy performance solutions. The results highlight that: (i) contextual and attitudinal attributes are two major drivers of energy efficiency investments, and (ii) depending on the energy solution considered, there is a significant inverse relationship between energy-savings behavior and energy efficiency investments. This reveals that environmental awareness is not necessarily a driving factor behind energy efficiency investments and emphasizes the so-called “rebound effect†issue. The results support the view that promoting energy-saving behaviors and energy efficiency investments necessitate differentiated public policies that consider both individual preferences and housing stock heterogeneity. The analysis offers valuable policy guidance and research agenda outlining future energy efficiency research priorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Fateh Belaïd, 2024. "Decarbonizing the Residential Sector: How Prominent is Household Energy-Saving Behavior in Decision Making?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 45(1), pages 125-148, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:45:y:2024:i:1:p:125-148
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.45.1.fbel
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.45.1.fbel
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.45.1.fbel?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. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sapio, Alessandro, 2019. "Energy saving in Italy in the late 1990s: Which role for non-monetary motivations?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Fumiko Samejima, 1997. "Departure from normal assumptions: A promise for future psychometrics with substantive mathematical modeling," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 471-493, December.
    3. Benjamin Volland, 2016. "Efficiency in Domestic Space Heating: An Estimation of the Direct Rebound Effect for Domestic Heating in the U.S," IRENE Working Papers 16-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    4. Fumiko Samejima, 1970. "Estimation of latent ability using a response pattern of graded scores," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 35(1), pages 139-139, March.
    5. Anna Alberini, Silvia Banfi, and Celine Ramseier, 2013. "Energy Efficiency Investments in the Home: Swiss Homeowners and Expectations about Future Energy Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    6. Belaïd, Fateh & Bakaloglou, Salomé & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Direct rebound effect of residential gas demand: Empirical evidence from France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 23-31.
    7. Li, Quan & Reuveny, Rafael, 2003. "Economic Globalization and Democracy: An Empirical Analysis," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 29-54, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hediger, Cécile & Farsi, Mehdi & Weber, Sylvain, 2018. "Turn It Up and Open the Window: On the Rebound Effects in Residential Heating," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 21-39.
    2. Belaïd, Fateh & Joumni, Haitham, 2020. "Behavioral attitudes towards energy saving: Empirical evidence from France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Mueller, Hannes & Rauh, Christopher, 2018. "Reading Between the Lines: Prediction of Political Violence Using Newspaper Text," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(2), pages 358-375, May.
    4. Wu, Yu & Mullan, Katrina & Biggs, Trent & Caviglia-Harris, Jill L. & Harris, Daniel & Sills, Erin O., 2018. "Do Forests Provide Watershed Services to Local Populations in the Humid Tropics? Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274012, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Greene, William H. & Hornstein, Abigail S. & White, Lawrence J., 2009. "Multinationals do it better: Evidence on the efficiency of corporations' capital budgeting," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 703-720, December.
    6. Fabian Gouret & Guillaume Hollard & Stéphane Rossignol, 2011. "An empirical analysis of valence in electoral competition," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 37(2), pages 309-340, July.
    7. Axel Dreher, 2002. "Does Globalization Affect Growth?," Development and Comp Systems 0210004, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Jun 2003.
    8. Sylvain M. Prado, 2009. "The European used-car market at a glance: Hedonic resale price valuation in automotive leasing industry," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(3), pages 2086-2099.
    9. David Matesanz Gomez & Guillermo J. Ortega & Benno Torgler, 2011. "Measuring globalization: A hierarchical network approach," CREMA Working Paper Series 2011-11, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    10. Liu, Jing & Bailey, DeeVon, 2013. "Examining Economies of Scale for Farmer Cooperatives in China’s Shanxi Province," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 41(2), pages 1-30.
    11. Barry Eichengreen & David Leblang, 2008. "Democracy And Globalization," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 289-334, November.
    12. Olsthoorn, Mark & Schleich, Joachim & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "Exploring the diffusion of low-energy houses: An empirical study in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1382-1393.
    13. Shao, Shuai & Guo, Longfei & Yu, Mingliang & Yang, Lili & Guan, Dabo, 2019. "Does the rebound effect matter in energy import-dependent mega-cities? Evidence from Shanghai (China)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C), pages 212-228.
    14. Mishra, Sudhanshu K, 2018. "A Simultaneous Equation Model of Globalization, Corruption, Democracy, Human Development and Social Progress," MPRA Paper 84213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Grivas Chiyaba & Carl Singleton, 2022. "Do natural resources and FDI tend to erode or support the development of national institutions?," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2022-02, Department of Economics, University of Reading, revised 30 May 2023.
    16. Gunitsky, Seva, 2014. "From Shocks to Waves: Hegemonic Transitions and Democratization in the Twentieth Century," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(3), pages 561-597, July.
    17. Nolan Alexander & William Scherer, 2024. "Using Machine Learning to Forecast Market Direction with Efficient Frontier Coefficients," Papers 2404.00825, arXiv.org.
    18. Fathi Ali & Norbert Fiess & Ronald Macdonald, 2011. "Climbing To The Top? Foreign Direct Investment And Property Rights," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(1), pages 289-302, January.
    19. Apoorva Lal & Mac Lockhart & Yiqing Xu & Ziwen Zu, 2023. "How Much Should We Trust Instrumental Variable Estimates in Political Science? Practical Advice Based on Over 60 Replicated Studies," Papers 2303.11399, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    20. Laura Abrardi, 2019. "Behavioral barriers and the energy efficiency gap: a survey of the literature," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(1), pages 25-43, March.

    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:sae:enejou:v:45:y:2024:i:1:p:125-148. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.