رفتار صرفه جویی در انرژی و هزینه کاهش آلودگی نهایی برای تولید گازهای گلخانه ای CO2

This paper attempts to measure consumers' perceived net benefits (or net costs) of energy-saving measures in using energy-consuming durable goods. Using the estimated net costs and the volume of CO2 reduced by the measures, a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve for the average household's CO2 emissions is produced. An analysis using the curve suggests that in order to provide households with an incentive to take actions that can lead to CO2 emission reductions in using energy-consuming durables, a high level of carbon price is needed. In addition, a regression analysis reveals that the net benefits of the measures are larger for households that put a higher priority on energy saving, for those living in detached houses, for those with a smaller number of persons living together, and for those with less income. The result of the analysis using the MAC curve may suggest that promoting energy-saving behavior will require not only a policy to provide economic incentives but also interventions to influence psychological factors of household behavior.

The enhancement of energy efficiency and conservation contributes not only to cutting energy-related expenditures but also to reductions in CO2 emissions. Recently the need for reducing household energy use has been emphasized in the debate on climate change policy. As income rises, consumers' lifestyle changes and the use of appliances gets popularized. These factors cause increases in household energy consumption (Kadian et al., 2007 and Feng et al., 2011). Improvements in the energy efficiency of appliances will contribute to decreasing energy consumption in the household sector, and there are significant potentials for such improvements in developing countries (Saidur et al., 2007). Changing consumer habits leading to consumption of carbon-intensive goods and services is one of the key challenges (Munksgaard et al., 2000). Although reducing energy consumption brings benefits to both individual energy users and society as a whole, there are many barriers that dampen incentives to invest in energy efficiency. Typical barriers are externalities, information deficiencies (lack of information and asymmetric information), and limited availability of capital (Tietenberg, 2009). These barriers to energy efficiency investment can be seen as market failures and appropriate government intervention is needed in order to overcome them. Closely related to the barriers to energy efficiency is the issue of implicit discount rates used by consumers and firms in evaluating energy-efficiency investment. A large number of empirical studies on the issue find that discount rates implied by consumers' choices are relatively high (Train, 1985). Ruderman et al. (1987) examine consumers' efficiency choices for eight residential appliances, finding that while the aggregate market discount rates of room and central air conditioners are about 20%, those of six appliances (refrigerators, freezers, gas and oil central space heaters, and electric and gas water heaters) have higher values, ranging from 39% to 825%. They offer several explanations for underinvestment in energy efficiency in the household sector, which include lack of information and limited availability of capital for purchasers, suggesting that high implicit discount rates are attributable not only to individual time preferences but also to the market failures. Consumers' high implicit discount rates may constitute a serious obstacle to the diffusion of energy-efficient durables. While purchasing energy-efficient durables might be perceived as unprofitable by consumers because of high implicit discount rates, households can reduce their energy consumption even without investments in energy efficiency: if they take care not to waste energy when using energy-consuming durables, their energy-related expenditures can be cut. Such energy-saving behavior is encouraged by the Japanese government. The Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ), a general incorporated foundation whose aim is to promote energy efficiency in Japan, provides households with information about reductions in energy consumption and CO2 emissions that are achieved by energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables 1. There are debates about policy intervention to induce households to take actions that have the potential to achieve large reductions in CO2 emissions. Vandenbergh and Steinemann (2007) and Vandenbergh et al. (2008) claim that there are low-hanging fruit measures: by carrying them out, households can reduce energy consumption without effort or sacrifice. Vandenbergh et al. (2010) discuss the design principles for energy efficiency programs to encourage households to implement such measures. The low-hanging fruit actions include both the adoption of more efficient equipment (i.e., investment in energy efficiency) and the curtailment of existing equipment use (i.e., energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables). As discussed above, however, the former is faced with the barriers that dampen incentives to invest in energy efficiency. With regard to the latter, it is inevitable to bear costs associated with energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables: for instance, if consumers raise their air conditioners' temperature settings in order to save electricity during the summer season, they may have to take the heat to some extent. In addition, it might be troublesome to turn lights or TVs off when not in use so that electricity may not be wasted. Rational consumers compare disutility associated with measures to save energy in using energy-consuming durables with gains from energy savings achieved by the measures in order to decide whether to carry out the measures or not. Disutility associated with energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables can be measured by estimating consumers' perceived costs of specific energy-saving measures. Measuring the disutility is an important task because the reason why there are households that do not carry out measures to save energy in using energy-consuming durables in spite of reductions in their energy-related expenditures can be explained. In addition, using the cost estimates, to what extent a carbon-pricing policy may promote energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables can be examined. The aim of this paper is to estimate the disutility of energy-saving behavior in using energy-consuming durables. In order to obtain information necessary for the estimation, a survey of consumers' energy-saving behavior was carried out. The questionnaire of the survey includes questions to elicit information on the costs of specific measures to save energy in using energy-consuming durables. Using the cost estimates and the volume of CO2 emissions reduced by the measures, a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve for household CO2 emissions associated with the use of energy-consuming durables can be obtained. In addition, the effects of households' attributes on the net benefits of the energy-saving measures are examined. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the methodology of the analysis and explains the survey carried out to collect data used in the analysis. The results are presented in Section 3. Section 4 examines the effects of households' attributes on the net benefits of energy-saving measures. Section 5 concludes the paper.

This paper attempts to measure consumers' perceived net benefits (or net costs) of fourteen energy-saving measures. Using the estimated net costs and the volume of CO2 emissions reduced by the measures, a MAC curve for the average household's CO2 emissions is produced. The curve indicates that in order to provide households with an incentive to take actions that can lead to CO2 emission reductions in using energy-consuming durables, a high level of carbon price is needed. In addition, the net benefits of the energy-saving measures are larger for households that put a higher priority on energy saving, for those living in detached houses, for those using photovoltaic power generation systems, for married couples, for households with a smaller number of persons living together, and for those with less income. The finding that a high carbon price is needed to encourage curtailment behavior may suggest that promoting such behavior requires not only a policy to provide economic incentives but also interventions to influence psychological factors of household behavior. Such interventions include antecedent strategies such as stimulating commitment, goal setting, and information provision, and consequence strategies such as feedback and rewards (Abrahamse et al., 2005). While there are numerous studies on the effectiveness of the interventions in the field of social and environmental psychology, a possible research direction may be to investigate the relationship between the disutility of curtailment behavior and psychological factors affected by these strategies. This remains as a future task.