{"title":"The social welfare implications of electrification in the U.S. residential energy market","authors":"Alexander Hill","doi":"10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103136","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Concerns over global climate change have led to support for household electrification to reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. However, due to the cost of mandating household electrification and the lack of an emissions-free grid, the social net benefit of this policy is unknown. Using a discrete choice empirical strategy, this paper estimates the tradeoff between household willingness to pay to avoid an electrification mandate and its environmental benefits in residential space and water heating markets. Compared with the counterfactual, the mandate has a net social cost of $47 billion annually from 2025 to 2050, largely from households in the Northeast and North Midwest.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15763,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","volume":"131 ","pages":"Article 103136"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069625000208","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Concerns over global climate change have led to support for household electrification to reduce CO2 emissions. However, due to the cost of mandating household electrification and the lack of an emissions-free grid, the social net benefit of this policy is unknown. Using a discrete choice empirical strategy, this paper estimates the tradeoff between household willingness to pay to avoid an electrification mandate and its environmental benefits in residential space and water heating markets. Compared with the counterfactual, the mandate has a net social cost of $47 billion annually from 2025 to 2050, largely from households in the Northeast and North Midwest.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management publishes theoretical and empirical papers devoted to specific natural resources and environmental issues. For consideration, papers should (1) contain a substantial element embodying the linkage between economic systems and environmental and natural resources systems or (2) be of substantial importance in understanding the management and/or social control of the economy in its relations with the natural environment. Although the general orientation of the journal is toward economics, interdisciplinary papers by researchers in other fields of interest to resource and environmental economists will be welcomed.