German Energy Policies in the Energy Crisis: Theory and Evidence on Firm and Household Responses
We investigate both theoretically and empirically the effects of German energy policies in the recent energy crisis. We focus on the gas price brake and show that firms had an incentive to exploit this transfer scheme. Using a cross-country Difference-in-Differences approach, comparing Germany and Austria, we confirm the theoretical predictions and show that the gas price brake led to a substantial increase in gas prices. Unlike firms, a large majority of consumers do not understand the incentives arising from the gas price brake. While gas savings during the crisis were substantial, consumers’ willingness and ability to respond to marginal individual economic incentives contributed little to overall gas savings.