This paper investigates the multidimensional impacts of energy-saving renovations on energy expenditures, thermal comfort, and well-being. Using propensity score matching on a nationally representative sample of 3,529 households, we assess both objective outcomes (indoor temperatures, energy spending) and subjective outcomes through WHOQOL-BREF indicators. While the renovations do not significantly reduce energy expenditures, they result in measurable improvements in thermal comfort and psychological well-being. Indoor temperature increases in winter and decreases in summer, and the WHO Psychological and Environmental Domain Scores rise by 1.61 and 1.31 points, respectively. These improvements correspond to an estimated reduction of approximately €201 per person annually in mental health-related costs. Our findings underscore the importance of considering health and well-being outcomes in the evaluation of energy policies. By addressing both energy poverty and poor housing conditions, energy renovations generate substantial societal returns, supporting the integration of well-being metrics into climate, housing, and public health agendas.

Fuelwood collection is often cited as the most important cause of deforestation in developing countries. Use of fuelwood in cooking is a leading cause of indoor air pollution. Using household data from India, we show that households located farther away from the forest spend more time collecting. Distant households are likely to sell more fuelwood and buy less. That is, lower access to forests increases fuelwood collection and sale. This counter-intuitive behavior is triggered by two factors: lower access to forests (a) increases the fixed costs of collecting, which in turn leads to more collection; and (b) drives up local fuelwood prices, which makes collection and sale more profitable. We quantify both these effects. Using our estimates we show that a fifth of the fuelwood collected is consumed outside of rural areas, in nearby towns and cities. Our results imply that at the margin, fuelwood scarcity may lead to increased collection and sale, and exacerbate forest degradation.

We investigate the role of peer effects in the workplace on individual active transportation mode choices. We collect original data through an online survey on networks and sustainable behaviors among 334 individuals working in ten research laboratories at the University of Grenoble Alps in February 2020. We apply linear and nonlinear models of peer effects on active modal choice, untangling the role of conformism and strategic complementarity in social influence. We show that given our data, a linear local-average specification is the preferred empirical model of peer effects, and we estimate strong and significant endogenous peer effects.

Background Frequent car use contributes to health and environmental issues such as air pollution, climate change and obesity. Active and sustainable mobility (bike, walk, public transport, car sharing) may address these issues. Different strategies have been implemented in past research, involving hard levers, aimed at modifying the economical or geographical context (e.g., free public transport), and soft levers, aimed at modifying psychological processes (e.g., personalised transport advice). However, few studies have combined both hard and soft levers. In addition, few have used robust methodologies (e.g., randomised controlled trials), followed behavioural changes in the long-term, and been anchored in behaviour change theories. InterMob aims to address these limits by implementing a 24-month randomised controlled trial including hard and soft levers. The objectives of InterMob are to a) evaluate the effectiveness of an experimental arm versus an active controlled arm, and b) identify the processes of mobility change. Methods Regular car users living in Grenoble ( N = 300) will be recruited and randomised to one of the two arms. The experimental arm consists in a six-month intervention combining hard levers (free access to transport/bikes), and soft levers (e.g., personalised transport advice). The control arm consists in a six-month intervention aimed at raising awareness on air pollution and its health effects. Both arms will include eight evaluation weeks (spread out over 24 months) based on a GPS, an accelerometer, and a pollution sensor. Moreover, participants will complete mobility logbooks and surveys measuring psychological constructs, socio-economical, and socio-spatial characteristics. Discussion InterMob will assess the effectiveness of two interventions aimed at reducing car use within regular car users in the short-, mid- and long-term. Moreover, InterMob will allow to better understand the psychological processes of behaviour change, and the socio-economical and geographical conditions under which the intervention is efficient in reducing car use. Finally, the benefits of mobility change in terms of physical activity, quality of life, and exposure to pollution will be quantified. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT05096000 on 27/10/2021 (retrospectively registered).

En 2019 en France, parmi les depenses de consommation energetique liees au logement, 72 % concernaient uniquement le chauffage et l’eau chaude sanitaire. Si de nombreuses politiques publiques sont mises en place pour inciter les menages a renover leur logement, une grande partie des gains en efficacite pourraient etre attenues par l’augmentation de la taille des logements, mais surtout par le comportement des menages. Ainsi, dans un contexte ou les taux d’occupation des logements sont plus importants, comme pendant le premier et le second confinement – qui ont eu lieu respectivement au printemps et a l’automne (periode pendant laquelle on chauffe les logements, meme si le climat est clement) – on aurait pu s’attendre a une hausse de la facture energetique des menages, meme si nous ne disposons pas encore de ces donnees.

Fiscal incentives have been introduced to encourage households in many countries to undertake energy-saving renovations. This paper assesses the impact of an energy tax credit on (i) renovation rate and (ii) renovation expenditures using French data. We exploit a sharp discontinuity corresponding to the introduction of the French tax credit in 2005 to identify the policy's effects. Results indicate that the tax credit has little effect on the decision to renovate, increasing renovations by 1.09%, ceteris paribus. We find that the presence of free riding reduces the actual effect of fiscal measures. However, this fiscal policy does lead to an increase in renovation expenditures by 21.76%, all things being equal. This suggests that the energy tax credit induces households who are already determined to renovate to perform more substantial energy-saving renovations. We conduct a robustness check using the matching method, which confirms our results.

Between 50 and 125 million Europeans are unable to afford the energy needed for adequate heating, cooking, light and use of appliances in the home. Tackling fuel poverty has thus become a public policy challenge. In this article, we assess the effectiveness of social energy subsidies and social housing to reduce fuel poverty. The literature reports that rising fuel prices, low incomes and energy-inefficient housing are the main causes of fuel poverty. Existing public policies focus mainly on price- and income-based measures to reduce fuel poverty, such as social energy subsidies. This type of policy is palliative as it does not permit to sustainably eradicate fuel poverty. Other policies aim to encourage renovation in order to improve energy efficiency. Those policies are curative as they sustainably reduce one cause of fuel poverty: energy inefficiency. In this article, we focus on another public policy to tackle fuel poverty: social housing. We believe that this policy could be preventive, as the literature reports the better energy efficiency of social housing. We use matching methods and find that living in social housing decreases fuel poverty by 5.4% to 9.1%. On the contrary, social energy subsidies have no effect on fuel poverty.

In this article, we assess French current public policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and abate household energy burden, through a simulation of changes in residential sector characteristics over the long run. We build on an existing partial equilibrium model to take into consideration key determinants of excessive energy burden among vulnerable households. This analysis reveals that current public policies are not sufficient to reach the ambitious objectives for reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions in France. Moreover, the decreases that might occur mask significant social disparities across households. The joint implementation of multiple instruments leads to interactions that diminish overall policy outcomes. Overall, current public policies produce estimated free-riding rates of 75%. Energy efficiency measures are thus insufficient in themselves; the government should focus more on monetary poverty as a cause of low home improvement rates and consider subsidizing renovation costs as a potential solution.

Given the objectives countries set to realise energy savings and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, an understanding of the main factors driving household energy consumption is crucial in formulating effective policy measures. The objective of this study is to identify the main determinants of household energy consumption in French residences. The model uses a discrete-continuous decision framework that allows for interactions between decisions about the heating system (discrete choice) and about energy consumption (continuous choice). The results show that the intensity of energy used per square metre is almost completely determined by the technical properties of the dwelling and the climate. The role of socio-demographic variables is shown to be particularly small. The paper shows that to be effective, environmental policy must strongly encourage households to renovate and adopt energy-saving appliances.

In this paper, we study the causal effect of two social policies on fuel poverty. The potential spillover effects of such policies on pollution are also considered. We apply matching methods to assess the impact of social energy tariff and social housing on fuel poverty. We show that social housing, probably by impacting the housing energy efficiency, allows reducing fuel poverty by about 5.9%. On the contrary, the price based policy Ð the social energy tariff- has no impact on fuel poverty. By demonstrating that fuel poor households emit significantly more pollutant gazes, we foresee then the potential spillover effects of policies decreasing fuel poverty: developing social housing could lead to reduce pollution and improve public health. The present research opens up space for a public debate on the image of social housing, which needs clearly to be rehabilitated in France. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

En France, un ménage sur cinq éprouverait des difficultés à chauffer son logement. Nos objectifs dans cet article sont i) de discuter les indicateurs utilisés pour estimer la précarité énergétique et ii) d’étudier le profil des ménages considérés comme précaires énergétiques afin de mettre en évidence les facteurs de risque. Les résultats montrent les limites des indicateurs utilisés, ce qui nous amène à proposer une échelle de précarité : des ménages identifiés comme les plus vulnérables (souvent locataires, à faible revenu, vivant dans des logements mal isolés et faisant donc face à des dépenses énergétiques élevées), entourés d’un halo de précarité.