òòò½Íø Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Role of People versus Places in Individual Carbon Emissions
òòò½Íø Review
vol. 115,
no. 5, May 2025
(pp. 1439–84)
Abstract
There is substantial spatial heterogeneity in household carbon emissions. I leverage movers in two decades of administrative Decennial Census and American Community Survey data to estimate place effects—the amount by which carbon emissions change for the same household living in different places—for almost 1,000 cities and roughly 61,500 neighborhoods across the United States. I estimate that place effects account for 14–23 percent of overall heterogeneity. A change in neighborhood-level place effects from 1 standard deviation above the mean to 1 below would reduce household carbon emissions from residential energy and commuting by about 40 percent.Citation
Lyubich, Eva. 2025. "The Role of People versus Places in Individual Carbon Emissions." òòò½Íø Review 115 (5): 1439–84. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230346Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D15 Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
- L94 Electric Utilities
- Q41 Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices
- Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
- R11 Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics