ENERGY STAR Appliance Market Shares: Do They Respond to Electricity Prices, and Does It Matter?

Abstract

We address an apparent paradox that the market shares of four ENERGY STAR appliances in the United States do not respond to within-state changes in electricity prices. We resolve the paradox by showing that market shares do respond to between-state variation in electricity prices. We also suggest an economic explanation for the paradox through the timing of appliance purchases. Using the estimation results, we find that the four ENERGY STAR appliances reduce carbon emissions by 1.9 million megawatt-hours per year, equivalent to removing 0.1% of all U.S. vehicles, and that the addition of a $100/ton CO2 price would increase these figures to 2.1 million megawatt-hours and 0.11%.