Conference Agenda

We examine the Black-White gap in residential energy expenditures using American Community Survey data for 2005–2022. Conditional on household characteristics, Black households pay approximately $240 more annually than White households, with gaps reaching $450 for low-income homeowners. Using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methods, we find roughly half of this gap is explained by observable differences, primarily location and weather. The gap has declined substantially since 2005, with low-income households experiencing $150–$245 reductions. Approximately half of this decline is attributable to falling natural gas prices driven by the shale gas revolution. National weatherization programs are too small to explain the

Prepayment can enhance salience, making customers more price-responsive when paying before consumption rather than after. Exploiting Indonesia's nationwide conversion to prepaid electricity metering alongside tariff increases, we find prepaid users exhibit price elasticities two to four times larger than postpaid users. This differential responsiveness is consistent with increased price awareness from upfront payment. Our choice experiment reveals a positive willingness-to-pay for prepaid metering, suggesting consumer welfare gains. We estimate that prepaid metering reduces deadweight loss by 1.5% and CO2 emissions by nearly 6%. Thus, prepayment could support climate policy goals by promoting energy conservation without imposing significant burdens on consumers.

The 2021-2023 European energy crisis, triggered by the war in Ukraine, led to broad policy interventions in energy markets. In contrast to the retail-side measures and public transfers implemented elsewhere, Spain and Portugal targeted the wholesale electricity market through the so-called Iberian solution. We quantify the distributional implications of the crisis and this market intervention on Spanish electricity firms and across consumer groups. We find that the crisis shifted substantial wealth from consumers to generators, with regressive impacts among consumers. Conversely, the policy’s relief was progressive, delivering larger gains to lower-income groups.

With many US regions trying to meet aggressive electric power sector decarbonization goals, utilities and policymakers have renewed interest in time-based electricity rates as a tool to manage peak demand, encourage energy conservation, and shift consumption patterns. We conduct a meta-analysis of the literature on US residential time-based rates, focusing on the impacts on peak demand and daily on-peak usage. By reviewing the diverse utility experiences, we identify key factors influencing rate design effectiveness and provide insight into enrollment and demand response heterogeneity. We also highlight gaps in research and discuss areas where additional exploration could improve rate design policies.

A fundamental question in economics is how consumers respond to price variation in the long run, yet causally identified estimates remain scarce. Using a novel source of exogenous, persistent electricity price variation, I estimate the long-run price elasticity of household electricity demand. I find that consumers are sixteen times more responsive in the long run than in the short run, with effects concentrated among low-income households. Exploring mechanisms, I show that persistently high prices increase consumers’ responsiveness to temperature variation. These results underscore the effectiveness of price-based policies and the importance of setting prices to reflect social marginal costs.