The CIREQ-CIRANO Workshop on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics is organized in collaboration with CIRANO. It is a joint event with the economics departments of Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University and HEC Montréal.

This event is aimed at researchers and doctoral students interested in the economics of natural resources and the environment.

→ This event took place online. 

• Kareman Yassin (Université d’Ottawa)
  “Peer Effects in Residential Energy Consumption”
  This paper examines the spatial peer effects generated by Canada’s largest home energy efficiency retrofit program and its impact on energy consumption within a city in the Prairie provinces. Utilizing a decade of monthly data on energy consumption, tax assessments, program participation, and house audits in the city, I demonstrate that neighbors in close proximity to energy efficiency retrofitted homes reduce their monthly natural gas and electricity consumption by an average of 2.4% and 1% respectively. Similar results are obtained when using three different comparison groups. Notably, visible retrofits such as windows, doors, and exterior wall insulation have a three-and-a-half times stronger impact on peer energy savings compared to less visible retrofits like natural gas furnace upgrades. Additionally, the effect diminishes as the distance to neighbors increases.
   
• Olga Chiappinelli (Universitat of Barcelona), joint with Gyula Seres (National University of Singapore)
  "Optimal Discounts in Green Public Procurement"
  Green Public Procurement is a potentially powerful policy tool to stimulate investment in green technologies. However, it is unclear how it should be implemented. To contribute to this debate, we analyze the procurer's problem using a mechanism design approach. Our analysis shows that the optimal auction mechanism for an environmentally concerned procurer incentivizes investment by low-cost bidders. We also show that a discount-based Green Public Procurement preferential program can implement this optimal outcome.