Conference Agenda

This paper examines how consumers respond to purchase-stage tax changes in the electric vehicle (EV) market, using the 2021 Danish registration tax reform as a quasi-natural experiment. The reform simultaneously introduced tax reductions for some EVs and tax increases for others within a single tax system, creating a unique setting to study asymmetric demand responses to price changes of opposite directions. Using model-level monthly sales data from Denmark and neighboring Nordic countries, we implement a difference-in-differences design to identify the causal effects of the reform on EV adoption. We find that the reform significantly increased overall EV sales in Denmark relative to comparable markets, with demand responses primarily concentrated among lower-priced EVs, while higher-priced models exhibit little measurable response. Further analysis reveals asymmetry: EVs experiencing tax reductions display clear sales increases, whereas EVs facing tax increases do not exhibit symmetric demand contractions. We also document substantial heterogeneity across EV segments, which is consistent with the interaction between price thresholds and battery-capacity-based deductions embedded in the tax schedule. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that differentiated EV purchase taxes can promote adoption among price-sensitive consumers while preserving fiscal sustainability.

We study the impact of subsidy targeting on additionality in car replacement programs, using administrative micro-level data on vehicle ownership, household income, and program participation covering nearly the entire population of French households. France implemented a large-scale retire-and-replace program between 2015 and 2024, which featured sharp income-based eligibility thresholds and substantial variation in subsidy generosity. Using a regression discontinuity design at these thresholds, we identify the causal effect of higher subsidies on household participation and vehicle replacement behavior. We find that low-income households eligible for the higher subsidy amount increased their participation in the program by around 30%, with similar responses among middle-income households, for electric vehicles (EVs) and non-EVs. While these participation effects are large, our results also imply that 74% to 76% of participants are inframarginal, indicating substantial windfall gains under uniform subsidies. We recover policy-relevant parameters such as the share of inframarginal participants and the slope of demand for replacement subsidies. Thereby we provide empirical evidence consistent with theoretical predictions that targeting can improve the economic efficiency of environmental subsidy programs.

We estimate how electric vehicle (EV) drivers value public charging across station types

and contexts. Using more than 84,000 charging session transactions from 189 charging

stations in the Southeastern United States between 2018 and 2024, we estimate that

drivers are willing to pay about $0.57 more per kilowatt-hour for DC Fast charging

relative to Level 2 charging, which implies a central value of reduced charging time of

$4.23 per hour. Willingness to pay is 28% higher for long-distance drivers than for local

users, reflecting the greater importance of charging speed on longer trips. We apply

our estimates to compare monetary and time costs of refueling gasoline vehicles versus

charging EVs at public stations. Although the average monetary cost of charging an

EV at a Level 2 station is lower than refueling a gasoline vehicle, the time cost is much

higher, making refueling an EV at a Level 2 charging overall more expensive. The

monetary plus time cost of refueling an EV at DC Fast station is also higher relative

to refueling a gasoline vehicle mostly due to the higher monetary cost. Our results

have implications for the design of policies to promote EV adoption, especially among

households that do not have the potential for home-based charging.

This paper examines whether an additional EV subsidy for young adults increases EV adoption. Using Korea’s 2025 reform that provided eligible young adults with an extra 20% of the national subsidy, this study employs a triple differences design with panel data by age group, region, fuel type, and month. The results indicate that the policy increased expected EV registrations among young adults by about 74.5% relative to older cohorts, alongside a significant decline in non-EV registrations, consistent with substitution toward EVs. Given a pre-policy mean of 1.06 monthly EV registrations for the treated group, the implied absolute change is modest and suggests an extensive-margin response. Effects are larger in low- and middle- income regions than in high-income regions, consistent with stronger responsiveness where affordability constraints are more salient. These intent-to-treat estimates reveal age-based heterogeneity in EV adoption and suggest that targeted subsidy designs can improve the effectiveness and fiscal efficiency of EV promotion policies across a wide range of policy environments.