Households energy consumption and transition toward cleaner energy sources

• DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.10.060
• Publication Date: 2017-12-21T19:05:27Z
• Authors: Olivier Damette; Philippe Delacote; Gaye Del Lo
• Keywords: 330; Environmental concern; Energy switching; 02 engineering and technology; [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance; 7. Clean energy; Energy consumption; 13. Climate action; 11. Sustainability; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; [SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration; Dependent qualitative econometrics; Energy transition

The paper investigates the factors influencing households’ energy choices, and the drivers of switching toward cleaner energy. We first present a theoretical framework to determine the factors that explain households’ energy consumption and highlight the motivations underlying their transition towards less polluting sources, including their environmental preference. Using French household data from ADEME, we provide an econometric test of qualitative variables following studies by Dubin and McFadden (1984). Our results show that income and prices are the main determinants of household energy consumption. Environmental considerations seem to influence the choice of energy sources more than consumption. We also find evidence that income and relative capital cost are the most important variables for household energy switching.