Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are intended to provide tenants and buyers with reliable information about the energy performance of buildings. As improved energy performance may increase building sale prices and rents, the EPCs are supposed to generate incentives for owners to invest in energy efficiency. The empirical evidence for a price premium associated with energy labels is, however, inconclusive and partly contradictory. By utilizing data from the Norwegian housing market, we reproduce the positive price premium effect found in earlier studies. However, when we check these results by taking advantage of the fact that the introduction of a mandatory energy certification system represents a quasinatural experiment, we find no evidence of a price premium. On the contrary, we present evidence that there is no effect of the energy label itself.

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The paper analyzes the conflict between illegal and legal exploitation of wildlife species in an East African context. In the model there are two agents, an agency managing a national park of fixed area and a group of local people living in the vicinity of the park. The park agency has the legal right to exploit the wildlife, while the local people hunt illegally. Because of the property rights, the park agency has incentives to invest in the stock of wildlife, while the behaviour of the local people is steered by short-term considerations. The model is analyzed in two steps. Firstly, the market solution is studied. Next, the model is examined when user and property rights are given to the local people.

Energy performance certificates (EPCs) were introduced to give property buyers better information about the energy efficiency of dwellings and provide incentives to make energy-efficient investments. Previous studies on the effect of EPCs on property value have yielded divergent results, with some studies finding that energy labels affect property values, but others finding that energy labels have little or no effect. The present paper takes the analysis one step further. Using data on energy prices in combination with transaction data from Oslo, we conclude that not only the energy label, but also the energy performance of dwellings in general, has little to no effect on transaction prices. This result is in line with the inferences of several survey studies, which indicate that when people buy a dwelling, they pay considerably less attention to its energy performance compared with other factors, such as the location, neighborhood, size, garden, and the number of bedrooms.

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