Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/74376 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
EWI Working Paper No. 12/11
Publisher: 
Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne (EWI), Köln
Abstract: 
This study examines attention effects in the market for hybrid vehicles. We show that local media coverage, gasoline price changes and unprecedented record gasoline prices have a significant causal impact on the consumers’ attention. As attention is not directly observable, we analyze online search behavior as a proxy for the revealed consumer attention. Our study is based on weekly panel data of local newspaper coverage, gasoline prices and Google search trends for 19 metropolitan areas in the US. Additionally, we use monthly state-level panel data to show that the adoption rate of the hybrid vehicle technology is robustly related to our measure of attention.
Subjects: 
consumer behavior
attention
media
gasoline price
energy efficiency
hybrid vehicle
JEL: 
D12
D83
L62
Q41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
257.77 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.