Work

Long-Run Demand for Energy Services: Income and Price Elasticities over Two Hundred Years

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: This article investigates how the demand for energy services has changed since the Industrial Revolution. It presents evidence on the income and price elasticities of demand for domestic heating, passenger transport, and lighting in the United Kingdom over the last two hundred years. As the economy developed and energy service prices fell, income elasticities have generally followed an inverse U-shape curve, and price elasticities have generally followed a U-shape curve. However, these general trends also appear to have been affected by energy and technological transitions, which boosted demand (by either encouraging poorer consumers to fully enter the market or offering new attributes of value to wealthier consumers). The evidence presented offers insights that will be helpful for identifying likely future trends in energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and for developing long-term climate policies. (JEL: Q41, N73, N74, D12)

Source: Review of Environmental Economics and Policy

DOI: 10.1093/reep/reu002

Author: Roger Fouquet

Institutions: Ikerbasque, Basque Centre for Climate Change, London School of Economics and Political Science

Language: English

Topic: Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies

Subfield: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Field: Energy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,809