Universität zu Köln

Mertesacker, Sebastian (2021). Essays on the Empirical Analysis of Residential Energy Demand. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This thesis contributes to the understanding of residential heat demand by developing and estimating novel empirical frameworks that allow detailed analyses of households' decisions on the level of thermal comfort to consume and the type of retrofit investments to conduct in their dwellings. Chapters 1 and 2 consider households' heat consumption in a static environment in which dwelling characteristics are given. Chapter 1 demonstrates how engineering models, that allow to predict the fuel requirements of dwellings, can be used to improve specifications of econometric regression equations. In chapter 2 a household production model of temperature consumption is specified and solved theoretically. The model allows to derive the regression equation structurally and thus to empirically identify the parameters of households' utility function of temperature consumption. The estimated model is used to predict model quantities such as the price elasticity of temperature consumption. It shows that there is substantial heterogeneity in households' price sensitivity, which is related to the proximity of their temperature choice to the satiation level of temperature consumption. Chapter 3 analysis households' modernisation behavior in a dynamic investment model. The model allows to separately identify households' preferences for thermal comfort, and thus the benefits of a modernisation, and the associated costs. It thus provides the basis for the calculation of counterfactual policy scenarios. Simulation results indicate that policies increasing fuel prices via a tax are substantially more effective in reducing residential fuel consumption than policies that incentivize modernisation investments only, e.g. through a subsidy on modernisaion costs.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Mertesacker, Sebastian sebastian_mertesacker@gmx.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-526894
Date:	2021
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Economics > Microeconomics, Institutions and markets > Professorship 5 for Economics
Subjects:	Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language energy economics English residential heat demand English household production model of temperature consumption English rebound effect English energy efficiency gap English
Date of oral exam:	23 April 2021
Referee:	Name Academic Title Münster, Johannes Prof. Dr. Vuong, Van Anh Prof. Ph.D.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/52689