IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lug/wpidep/1506.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rational habits in residential electricity demand

Author

Listed:
  • Massimo Filippini

    (Institute of Economics (IdEP), University of Lugano; Department of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Bettina Hirl

    (Institute of Economics (IdEP), University of Lugano, Switzerland)

  • Giuliano Masiero

    (Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering (DIGIP), University of Bergamo, Italy; Institute of Economics (IdEP), University of Lugano, Switzerland)

Abstract

Dynamic partial adjustment models of residential electricity demand account for the fact that households may not adjust electricity consumption immediately in response to changes in prices, income, and other relevant factors, because of behavioral habits or adjustment costs for the capital stock of appliances. However, forward-looking behavior is generally neglected. Expectations about future prices or consumption may have an impact on current decisions. In this paper we propose rational habit models for residential electricity demand and apply them to a panel of 48 US states between 1995 and 2011. We estimate lead consumption models using fixed effects, instrumental variables, and the GMM Blundell-Bond estimator. We find that expectations about future consumption significantly influence current consumption decisions, which suggests that households behave rationally when making electricity consumption decisions. This novel approach may improve our understanding of the dynamics of residential electricity demand and the evaluation of the effects of energy policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Filippini & Bettina Hirl & Giuliano Masiero, 2015. "Rational habits in residential electricity demand," IdEP Economic Papers 1506, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    • Handle: RePEc:lug:wpidep:1506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://doc.rero.ch/record/257708/files/wp1506.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dergiades, Theologos & Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2008. "Estimating residential demand for electricity in the United States, 1965-2006," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2722-2730, September.
    2. Alberini, Anna & Filippini, Massimo, 2011. "Response of residential electricity demand to price: The effect of measurement error," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 889-895, September.
    3. M. Filippini & G. Masiero, 2012. "An empirical analysis of habit and addiction to antibiotics," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 471-486, April.
    4. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    5. Espey, James A. & Espey, Molly, 2004. "Turning on the Lights: A Meta-Analysis of Residential Electricity Demand Elasticities," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Baltagi, Badi H. & Bresson, Georges & Pirotte, Alain, 2002. "Comparison of forecast performance for homogeneous, heterogeneous and shrinkage estimators: Some empirical evidence from US electricity and natural-gas consumption," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 375-382, August.
    7. Badi H. Baltagi, 2007. "On The Use Of Panel Data Methods To Estimate Rational Addiction Models," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(1), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Becker, Gary S & Grossman, Michael & Murphy, Kevin M, 1994. "An Empirical Analysis of Cigarette Addiction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 396-418, June.
    9. Okajima, Shigeharu & Okajima, Hiroko, 2013. "Estimation of Japanese price elasticities of residential electricity demand, 1990–2007," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 433-440.
    10. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    11. Hendrik S. Houthakker, 1980. "Residential Electricity Revisited," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    12. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    13. Scott, K. Rebecca, 2012. "Rational habits in gasoline demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1713-1723.
    14. Badi H. Baltagi & James M. Griffin, 2002. "Rational addiction to alcohol: panel data analysis of liquor consumption," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 485-491, September.
    15. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Smyth, Russell & Prasad, Arti, 2007. "Electricity consumption in G7 countries: A panel cointegration analysis of residential demand elasticities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4485-4494, September.
    16. Paul, Anthony & Myers, Erica & Palmer, Karen, 2009. "A Partial Adjustment Model of U.S. Electricity Demand by Region, Season, and Sector," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-50, Resources for the Future.
    17. Richard J. Cebula, 2012. "US residential electricity consumption: the effect of states' pursuit of energy efficiency policies," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(15), pages 1499-1503, October.
    18. Bernstein, Ronald & Madlener, Reinhard, 2011. "Responsiveness of Residential Electricity Demand in OECD Countries: A Panel Cointegation and Causality Analysis," FCN Working Papers 8/2011, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN).
    19. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    20. Browning, Martin, 1991. "A Simple Nonadditive Preference Structure for Models of Household Behavior over Time," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 607-637, June.
    21. Baltagi, Badi H & Griffin, James M, 2001. "The Econometrics of Rational Addiction: The Case of Cigarettes," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(4), pages 449-454, October.
    22. Lester D. Taylor, 1975. "The Demand for Electricity: A Survey," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(1), pages 74-110, Spring.
    23. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    24. H. S. Houthakker & Philip K. Verleger & Dennis P. Sheehan, 1974. "Dynamic Demand Analyses for Gasoline and Residential Electricity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(2), pages 412-418.
    25. Maddala, G S, et al, 1997. "Estimation of Short-Run and Long-Run Elasticities of Energy Demand from Panel Data Using Shrinkage Estimators," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 15(1), pages 90-100, January.
    26. Kamerschen, David R. & Porter, David V., 2004. "The demand for residential, industrial and total electricity, 1973-1998," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 87-100, January.
    27. Kiviet, Jan F., 1995. "On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 53-78, July.
    28. Blázquez, Leticia & Boogen, Nina & Filippini, Massimo, 2013. "Residential electricity demand in Spain: New empirical evidence using aggregate data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 648-657.
    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. Tatyana Deryugina & Alexander MacKay & Julian Reif, 2020. "The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 86-114, January.
    2. 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.
    3. Gilbert, Ben & Graff Zivin, Joshua S., 2020. "Dynamic corrective taxes with time-varying salience," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    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. Filippini, Massimo & Hirl, Bettina & Masiero, Giuliano, 2018. "Habits and rational behaviour in residential electricity demand," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 137-152.
    2. Akihiro Otsuka, 2019. "Natural disasters and electricity consumption behavior: a case study of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 887-910, October.
    3. Alberini, Anna & Gans, Will & Velez-Lopez, Daniel, 2011. "Residential consumption of gas and electricity in the U.S.: The role of prices and income," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 870-881, September.
    4. Alberini, Anna & Filippini, Massimo, 2011. "Response of residential electricity demand to price: The effect of measurement error," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 889-895, September.
    5. Cialani, Catia & Mortazavi, Reza, 2018. "Household and industrial electricity demand in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 592-600.
    6. Hung, Ming-Feng & Huang, Tai-Hsin, 2015. "Dynamic demand for residential electricity in Taiwan under seasonality and increasing-block pricing," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 168-177.
    7. Miller, Mark & Alberini, Anna, 2016. "Sensitivity of price elasticity of demand to aggregation, unobserved heterogeneity, price trends, and price endogeneity: Evidence from U.S. Data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 235-249.
    8. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2019. "Dynamic panel data estimation of an integrated Grossman and Becker–Murphy model of health and addiction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 703-733, February.
    9. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna, 2020. "Price and income elasticities of residential and industrial electricity demand in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Dorothée CHARLIER & Mouez FODHA & Djamel KIRAT, 2021. "CO2 Emissions from the Residential Sector in Europe: Some Insights form a Country-Level Assessment," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2849, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    11. Mark Miller & Anna Alberini, 2015. "Sensitivity of price elasticity of demand to aggregation, unobserved heterogeneity, price trends, and price endogeneity: Evidence from U.S. Data," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 15/223, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    12. Kostakis, Ioannis & Lolos, Sarantis & Sardianou, Eleni, 2021. "Residential natural gas demand: Assessing the evidence from Greece using pseudo-panels, 2012–2019," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    13. Desiderio Romero-Jordán & Pablo del Río & Cristina Peñasco, 2014. "Household electricity demand in Spanish regions. Public policy implications," Working Papers 2014/24, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    14. Desiderio Romero-Jordán & Pablo del Río & Cristina Peñasco, 2014. "Household electricity demand in Spanish regions. Public policy implications," Working Papers 2014/24, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    15. Blazquez Leticia & Nina Boogen & Massimo Filippini, 2012. "Residential electricity demand for Spain: new empirical evidence using aggregated data," CEPE Working paper series 12-82, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    16. Scott, K. Rebecca, 2015. "Demand and price uncertainty: Rational habits in international gasoline demand," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 40-49.
    17. Cho, Seong-Hoon & Kim, Taeyoung & Kim, Hyun Jae & Park, Kihyun & Roberts, Roland K., 2015. "Regionally-varying and regionally-uniform electricity pricing policies compared across four usage categories," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 182-191.
    18. Salari, Mahmoud & Javid, Roxana J., 2016. "Residential energy demand in the United States: Analysis using static and dynamic approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 637-649.
    19. Rebecca K Scott, 2014. "Tax Salience vs. Price Uncertainty: Disentangling the Effects of Attention and Rational Habits," Economics Series Working Papers 736, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Badi H. Baltagi, 2021. "Dynamic Panel Data Models," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, in: Econometric Analysis of Panel Data, edition 6, chapter 0, pages 187-228, Springer.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Residential electricity; Partial adjustment models; Dynamic panel data models; Rational habits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • D99 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Other
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q47 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy Forecasting
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:lug:wpidep:1506. 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: Alessio Tutino (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.bul.sbu.usi.ch .

    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.