Economic indicators of market transformation: Energy efficient lighting and EPA's green lights

Using observed market quantities and prices of substitutable products, a me thodology is developed to estimate economic indicators of market transforma tion for the energy efficient lighting market. Market transformation, an en ergy industry term referring to the ongoing development of self-sustaining markets for energy efficient products and services, is the goal of an incre asing number of publicly-funded programs. Chief among these is the U. S. EP A's Green Lights and its successor ENERGY STAR (R). Using four decades of d ata related to fluorescent lighting ballasts, this study isolates product p rice effects and thereby permits the impacts of public programs to be disti nguished from the typical workings of the market. The economic indicators a re further used for deriving market volume estimates that are converted to energy savings and climate protection impacts. The findings reveal that Gre en Lights is responsible for annual savings in 2000 of over 5.6 million met ric tons of carbon.