The Diffusion of Energy Efficiency in Building

with Marquise McGraw and John Quigley, American Economic Review (2011)

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In this paper, we analyze the diffusion of buildings certified for energy efficiency across US property markets. Using a panel of 48 metropolitan areas (MSAs) observed over the last 15 years, we trace the diffusion of green building practices across the country. We then model the geographic patterns and dynamics of building certification, relating industry composition, changes in economic conditions, characteristics of the local commercial property market, and the presence of human capital, to the cross-sectional variation in energy-efficient building technologies and the diffusion of those technologies over time. Understanding the determinants and the rate at which energy-efficient building practices diffuse over space and time is important for designing policies to affect resource consumption in the built environment. The short version of the paper is forthcoming in the AEA Proceedings (May 2011) Download the long version of the paper here The Diffusion of Energy Efficiency in Building View more presentations from nilskok.