Analysing the impact of ENERGY STAR rebate policies in the US

摘要

In this paper, we estimate the impact of rebate policies in various US states on the sales share of ENERGY STAR household appliances. We use annual ENERGY STAR sales data for clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators and air conditioners from 2001 to 2006 and the variation in the coverage of rebates across US states and over time to identify the impact of rebate policies. We use, at first, a difference-in-differences approach to estimate this impact. Then, we take into account the possibility of rebate policies being endogenous and use instrumental variables approaches in fixed effects panel data regression models. Results suggest that rebate policies increase the sales share of ENERGY STAR household appliances by 3.3 to 6.6 percentage points, and this represents an impact of 9 to 18 % on the mean level of the sales share of ENERGY STAR household appliances in the US between 2001 and 2006. We conclude that rebates on ENERGY STAR appliances increase the uptake of energy-efficient appliances.