Data and Code for: Energy Hogs and Energy Angels: What Does Residential Electricity Use Really Tell Us about Profligate Consumption?

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Severin Borenstein, University of California, Berkeley

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
EnergyHogsRASS.do text/plain 44.4 KB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
EnergyHogsRASS.slf text/plain 217.6 KB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
EnergyHogsRECS.do text/plain 5.5 KB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
RASSAppendix.pdf application/pdf 17.7 MB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
RASSMethodology.pdf application/pdf 2.5 MB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
RASSplusV2.csv text/csv 58.8 MB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
ReadMe.txt text/plain 3.6 KB 03/20/2025 05:10:PM
TTS_LBNL_public_file_27-Oct-2023_all.csv text/csv 1.3 GB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
energyhogsRECS.slf text/plain 112.1 KB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM
recs2020_public_v6.csv text/csv 53 MB 02/08/2025 07:23:AM

Project Citation: 

Borenstein, Severin. Data and Code for: Energy Hogs and Energy Angels: What Does Residential Electricity Use Really Tell Us about Profligate Consumption? Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-04-04. https://doi.org/10.3886/E218482V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Energy Hogs and Energy Angels: What Does Residential Electricity Usage Really Tell Us About Profligate Consumption? Manuscript ID: PandP-2025-1111 Abstract: High residential volumetric electricity prices are partially justified as placing more of the cost burden on less prudent households, so-called "energy hogs".  I show the difference in means between above-median and below-median household consumption declines by 60%-90% after adjusting for three factors: number of household occupants, local climate variation, and adoption of rooftop solar. Failure to make these adjustments disproportionately hurts low-income households. Focusing on residential electricity is especially problematic, because nationally it accounts for less than 15% of energy and less than 10% of GHG emissions, while such penalty pricing is virtually nonexistent elsewhere in the economy.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Next 10 provided work on earlier project that created some of the data (23060)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms energy conservation; energy consumption; utility rates
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      L51 Economics of Regulation
      L94 Electric Utilities
      Q41 Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2019 – 2020 (One-time surveys in 2019 (CA) and 2020 (US))
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2019 – 2020 (one time surveys in 2019 and 2020)
Universe:  View help for Universe Residential electricity customers
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) survey data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes See methodology and appendix files in the archive

Methodology

Response Rate:  View help for Response Rate See methodology file for all response rate information
Data Source:  View help for Data Source Household energy use surveys for (1) California and (2) US
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Household

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Published Versions

V2 [2025-04-04]

V1 [2025-02-08]

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