TY  - JOUR
AU  - Metcalf,Gilbert E.
AU  - Hassett,Kevin A.
TI  - Measuring the Energy Savings from Home Improvement Investments: Evidence from Monthly Billing Data
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6074
PY  - 1997
Y2  - June 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6074
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6074.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gilbert E. Metcalf
Department of Economics
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
1500 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Tel: 617/627-3685
Fax: 617/627-3917
E-Mail: gilbert.metcalf@tufts.edu

Kevin Hassett
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
E-Mail: khassett@aei.org
AB  - An important factor driving energy policy over the past two decades has been the  Energy Paradox,' the perception that consumers apply unreasonably high hurdle rates to energy saving investments.  We explore one possible explanation for this apparent puzzle: that realized returns fall short of the returns promised by engineers and product manufacturers.  Using a unique data set, we find that the realized return to attic insulation is statistically significant, but the median estimate (12.3 percent) is close to a discount rate for this investment implied by a CAPM analysis.  We conclude that the case for the Energy Paradox is weaker than has previously been believed.
ER  -