Climate policy without a price signal: Evidence on the implicit carbon price of energy efficiency in buildings

Based on data for a portfolio of 548 multi-unit buildings observed over 16 years, we quantify the impacts of more than 400 energy efficiency interventions among 239 treated buildings. We exploit variation in the timing of investments to provide evidence that treated and control buildings follow the same trend in the absence of energy efficiency investments, and use staggered difference-in-differences regressions to document building-level energy savings, CO abatement, and heating expenditure reductions. Our results show that a ranking of interventions based on realized energy savings yields substantially different priorities as compared to a ranking of implicit carbon prices, with estimates of frequently subsidized measures (such as wall insulation and windows replacement) well in excess of available benefit estimates for avoided emissions.Based on data for a portfolio of 548 multi-unit buildings observed over 16 years, we quantify the impacts of more than 400 energy efficiency interventions among 239 treated buildings. We exploit variation in the timing of investments to provide evidence that treated and control buildings follow the same trend in the absence of energy efficiency investments, and use staggered difference-in-differences regressions to document building-level energy savings, CO abatement, and heating expenditure reductions. Our results show that a ranking of interventions based on realized energy savings yields substantially different priorities as compared to a ranking of implicit carbon prices, with estimates of frequently subsidized measures (such as wall insulation and windows replacement) well in excess of available benefit estimates for avoided emissions.