Do Liberal Home Owners Consume Less Electricity? A Test of the Voluntary Restraint Hypothesis

PWP-CCPR-2013-008

Abstract

Using a unique data set that merges an electric utility’s residential customer monthly electricity consumption in 2008 with household level data on demographics, structure and neighborhood characteristics and the political party of registration for the head of household, this paper documents that liberal households consume less electricity than observationally identical households. In the absence of first best carbon pricing, such “voluntary restraint” helps to mitigate the challenge of climate change.