Lorna A. Greening

Household adjustment to gasoline price change an analysis using 9 years of US survey data

This paper examines the dynamics and composition of household adjustment to changes in the real price of gasoline using a panel of US households. By decomposing the demand for gasoline into the demand for vehicle miles traveled and the demand for household composite miles per gallon, we are able to add rich detail to the description of how households respond to gasoline price changes. While obtaining total price elasticity estimates well within the range found in the literature, we find that consumers initially respond to a price rise with a much larger decrease in consumption than would be indicated by the total elasticity. In addition, households respond to price changes by adjusting vehicle miles traveled more than composite miles per gallon in the year after a price change.

Effects of changes in residential end-uses and behavior on aggregate carbon intensity: comparison of 10 OECD countries for the period 1970 through 1993

Abstract Patterns of the evolution of aggregate carbon intensity from residential end uses show greater variability than other sectors. For some countries in this analysis, this measure exhibits significant decreases, while for other countries this measure exhibits significant increases over the period of analysis. The Adaptive Weighted Divisia rolling base year index specification is applied to carbon emissions from the residential sector for 10 OECD countries for the period 1970–1993. Decreases in aggregate carbon intensity for six of the countries range less than 8% to almost 72%, and may be attributed to changes in three different factors. However, for all of the countries, decreases are offset by shifts in end-use structure toward more carbon-intensive activities. These shifts are driven by an increase in the number of households with a corresponding increase in floor space, acquisition of greater numbers of major appliances and by an increase in the ‘other’ energy consumption category.