Beyond case studies: Barriers to energy efficiency in commerce and the services sector

To assess the empirical relevance of various barriers to the diffusion of energy-efficient measures, we conduct econometric analyses for 19 sub-sectors in the German commercial and services sectors. Results from estimating a separate Logit model for each sub-sector suggest that the most important barriers are the investor/user dilemma and the lack of information about energy consumption patterns. Typically, multiple types of barriers are found to be statistically significant, but they vary considerably across sub-sectors. Finally, we discuss policy implications for the most relevant barriers.