Salle 3001

Etienne FIZE (PSE) “Incidence of means-tested subsidies to housing retrofit: Evidence from France”

Abstract: We study the incidence of subsidizing housing retrofits. We leverage cross-sectional and temporal variation in the main policy instrument aimed at fostering housing energy efficiency investment by French households. Under the new, means-tested scheme, households who receive higher subsidies that are discontinuously face an even lower total price for a given renovation step. We show that this over-100\% pass-through rate is consistent with rationed local markets where renovation firms can exert market power and discriminate across households’ eligibility status, and where demand for renovation is steep. We corroborate this intuition empirically using a regression discontinuity design.  Next, we exploit the differential exposure of firms to the reform. Using a difference in difference strategy across eligible and non-eligible firms in the construction sector, we study the effect of the reform on the renovation market.

Joint work : Paul Dutronc-Postel (IPP) et Aurel Mélard (CREST)