Project

In addition to economic factors, also psychological factors help to explain the rebound effect, e.g. through moral licensing: The good feeling of saving resources in one domain can induce people to waste resources in other domains. So far, such effects have hardly been empirically analyzed. This research project will empirically investigate these psychological effects as well as direct, indirect and macroeconomic rebound effects. The focus is on the domains that are particularly relevant for households: electricity, fuel and water as well as heat demand. LICENSE employs an interdisciplinary approach, which is characterized by behavioral economics, psychology and sociology, and by various empirical methods, including experiments, microeconometric analyses of primary and secondary data, microsimulations and macroeconomic analyses.

Project related publications

peer-reviewed journals

Dütschke, E., M. Frondel, J. Schleich, C. Vance (2018) Moral Licensing: Another Source of Rebound? Frontiers in Energy Research 6 (38): 1-10.

discussion papers

Dütschke, E., M. Frondel, J. Schleich, C. Vance (2018) Moral Licensing - Another Source of Rebound? Ruhr Economic Papers #747. RUB, RWI.

Project website German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Project start:
01. February 2018

Project end:
31. January 2021

Project management:
Prof. Dr. Manuel Frondel

Project staff:
Dr. Lukas Tomberg, Prof. Colin Vance Ph.D.

Project partners:
Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung, ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, co2online non-profit GmbH, Prof. Dr. Wouter Poortinga, Dr. Tilman Santarius, Dr. Steven Sorrell, Prof. Dr. John Thogersen

Principal:
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung