Research on the Direct Rebound Effect of Residential Electricity Consumption in China Based on Panel Threshold Model

The residential sector is becoming the most potential energy consumption sector in China. As the main consumption form of residential energy, the improvement of electricity efficiency is considered as a main method to reduce residential energy consumption. Nevertheless, in the presence of rebound effect (RE), policies to improve energy efficiency don’t work as well as we’d expect. In this article, the direct RE of residents’ electricity use in China is analyzed empirically based on the panel linear model and the panel threshold model respectively from 2010 to 2016. The results indicate that: the average RE of China’s residential electricity use is 37.4%; residential electricity consumption is not sensitive to the electricity price in high-income regime (PGDP>76023.67), while the direct RE is 41.92% in low-income regime (PGDP≤76023.67). It indicates that government can consider formulating and implementing some supporting policies when setting energy policies and focus on the implementation of energy efficiency policies in high income and low population regions.