Price and income elasticities of electricity demand: Evidence from Jamaica

Abstract

Jamaica's electricity sector faces supply-side challenges. Demand-side policies have the potential to improve electricity use efficiency and reduce the likelihood of electricity disruptions. In this paper, I use the bounds testing approach to cointegration to obtain long-run price elasticity of demand estimates for the period 1970–2014. The analysis focuses on aggregate electricity demand and three categories of consumers: residential, commercial, and industrial. The findings suggest that residential and industrial consumers are most responsive to price changes, with long-run price elasticities of demand of −0.82 and −0.25, respectively. Price-based approaches are likely to be more successful in slowing electricity demand growth in these sectors.