You are cordially invited to attend the next CEGE4ALL: Markets & Policy Seminar by Lukasz Grzybowski, on “The Impact of the New EU Energy Label 2021 on Energy Consumption of Domestic Appliances”.
Venue: Católica Porto Business School, Paradise Building, Room EP004
Date: 21 October
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Format: hybrid (online or in-person)
Please register here by October 20th
We analyze changes in the annual energy consumption of refrigerators sold in four European countries—Belgium, France, Germany, and Poland—between 2019 and 2022. Specifically, we examine whether the introduction of new energy labeling regulations, which took effect in March 2021 (the New EU Energy Label 2021), led to improvements in energy efficiency. Our data reveal significant differences in the average sales-weighted energy consumption of refrigerators across these countries. Germany and Belgium show substantially lower levels of energy consumption, likely due to differences in product portfolios and consumer purchasing behavior. In contrast, consumers in France and Poland tend to purchase less energy-efficient models. Between March 2021 and December 2022, after controlling for refrigerator characteristics that affect energy use, the average energy consumption declined by 2.8% in France, 3.4% in Belgium, and 3.5% in both Germany and Poland. Next, we estimate a nested logit demand model that incorporates the cost of energy consumption over a 15-year horizon. Our estimates suggest that, except in Poland, consumers generally undervalue the cost of energy usage when purchasing refrigerators, both under the old and the new labeling regulations. Finally, we use the model to conduct counterfactual simulations of the impact on the average energy consumption of purchased refrigerators, including a policy scenario that bans the sale of the least energy-efficient models.
Lukasz Grzybowski is a full professor of economics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, and a lecturer at École Polytechnique in Paris. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Munich and a habilitation from Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He has previously held positions at Télécom Paris, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and other European universities.
His research focuses on Empirical Industrial Organization and has been published in leading journals, including American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, International Journal of Industrial Organization, among others.
