Subsidizing Fuel-Efficient Cars: Evidence from China's Automobile Industry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Chia-Wen; Hu, Wei-Min; Knittel, Christopher R.
• 署名单位: Academia Sinica - Taiwan; National Chengchi University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170098
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 152-184
• 关键词: energy; incentives; cash

摘要

This paper examines the response of vehicle purchase behavior to China's largest national subsidy program for fuel-efficient vehicles during 2010 and 2011. Using variation from the program's eligibility cutoffs and the rollout of the subsidy program , the program is found to boost sales for subsidized vehicle models , but also to create a substitution effect within highly fuel-efficient vehicles. Estimates imply that ignoring the substitution effect would lead one to conclude that the program is welfare enhancing , whereas in fact the marginal cost of the program exceeds the marginal benefit by as much as 300 percent.