Energy Efficiency Labeling and Household Energy Consumption Behavior in China: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Given China’s pressure to reduce energy use and the rise of Chinese residents’ energy consumption in the last decades, it is of significance to investigate the energy consumption behaviors of Chinese households. This paper examines the impacts of energy efficiency labeling on Chinese households’ use of domestic appliances, using the data from a national household survey (i.e., the Chinese General Social Survey) in 2015. Applying the propensity score matching (PSM) approach, we find a positive relationship between energy efficiency label and the use of domestic appliances, indicating the possible existence of rebound effect. This finding is significantly robust across a series of appliances and a battery of regression methods. The heterogeneity analysis yields that the effect of energy efficiency label on appliance use is heterogeneous in residential places, income level and head’s gender of households. The findings shed light on how to better apply energy efficiency labeling programs.