Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/286534 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] SERIEs - Journal of the Spanish Economic Association [ISSN:] 1869-4195 [Volume:] 12 [Issue:] 2 [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 231-254
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
To facilitate the energy transition, regulators can choose between several policy options to stimulate energy-efficient design by firms. One possibility is to target firms directly through standards or subsidies. Alternatively, it is possible to influence firms indirectly by targeting firms' stakeholders and raising consumer awareness through information campaigns and education. In this paper, we focus specifically on the pivotal role of consumers and we investigate the effectiveness of subsidies, product standards, and education in improving firms' environmental performance through energy-efficient product design. In particular, we investigate the importance of the interaction effect between the regulation and consumers' environmental awareness under different market structures. We find that a policy based on a product standard can counteract the negative effects of crowding-out consumers' intrinsic motivation in a monopoly setting, although this counteracting effect is less powerful under a duopoly. However, a subsidy does not provide such a backup system and the full effect of crowding-out will be visible.
Subjects: 
Environmental policy instruments
Energy-efficient design
Crowding-in/crowding-out
Consumer awareness
JEL: 
C72
D43
H23
L51
Q58
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size
754.84 kB





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