RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Neighborhood Spillovers from Residential Energy Retrofit Programs
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 070926-0101R
DO 10.3368/le.103.2.070926-0101R
A1 Yassin, Kareman
YR 2026
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2026/09/24/le.103.2.070926-0101R.abstract
AB We estimate neighborhood spillovers in energy consumption using data from Canada’s largest residential energy retrofit program. Identification exploits variation in retrofit timing by comparing neighbors of retrofitted homes with neighbors of “Almost retrofitted” homes that completed a pre-retrofit audit but did not undertake upgrades. We find that neighboring homes reduce natural gas consumption by 1.2% in the short run and 1.4% in the long run, while electricity consumption falls by 1% in the long run. Spillovers persist for more than a decade and are more than five times larger for highly visible retrofits, suggesting conventional evaluations substantially understate program benefits.