Working Papers

Abstract

Energy consumption in the residential sector offers an important opportunity for
conserving resources. However, much of the current debate regarding energy efficiency
in the housing market focuses on the physical and technical determinants of energy
consumption, neglecting the role of the economic behavior of resident households. In
this paper, we analyze the extent to which the use of gas and electricity is determined
by the technical specifications of the dwelling as compared to the demographic
characteristics of the residents. Our analysis is based on a sample of more than
300,000 Dutch homes and their occupants. The results indicate that residential gas
consumption is determined principally by structural dwelling characteristics, such
as the vintage, building type, and characteristics of the dwelling, while electricity
consumption varies more directly with household composition, in particular income
and family composition. Combining these results with projections on future economic
and demographic trends, we find that, even absent price increases for residential
energy, the aging of the population and their increasing wealth will roughly offset
improvements in the energy efficiency of the building stock resulting from policy
interventions and natural revitalization

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