Will energy efficiency affect appliance price? An empirical analysis of refrigerators in China based on hedonic price model

Abstract

Household appliances consume a considerable amount of energy. Consumers' choice of household appliances with different energy efficiency levels affects their future energy consumption. Therefore, guiding consumers to choose energy-efficient appliances is important. Consumers purchase household appliances to enjoy the utility of the products' attributes. Which attributes are important when choosing household appliances? Will energy efficiency level affect appliance price that consumers pay for? To answer these questions, a hedonic price model is used to quantify the utility value of appliance attributes and explore key appliance attributes through three dimensions, namely, policy, platform, and product attributes. Consumers' preferences for different appliance attributes can be revealed by empirically analyzing the relationship between these attributes and appliance price. Refrigerator data were crawled from a large e-commerce website in China, and data of 1612 products were obtained after data cleaning. Results show that attributes, such as energy efficiency label and brand, have an important impact on refrigerator price. The results have important implications for the further development of China's appliance enterprises and energy efficiency label.