Does energy-efficiency label affect appliance price? Empirical analysis of the new national standard air conditioners in China

A new national standard (NS) for energy-efficiency labels has been released in China to improve the energy-efficiency requirements of household appliances. However, the impacts of the newly revised NS for air conditioners (ACs) on consumer preference and willingness to pay (WTP) remain unclear. Using data from a large e-commerce website in China, this study explores users’ preferences and WTP for the attributes of online stores, comments, and products pertaining to new NS ACs based on the hedonic price model (HPM), and uses the Heckman two-step estimation to correct for selection bias. The results show that the premium of the new NS energy-efficiency label estimated by the Heckman model is 6.24%, which is 23.71% lower than that estimated directly by the HPM. Online store attributes and comment attributes also affect the prices of new NS ACs. Furthermore, product attributes have effects on the prices of both new and old NS ACs, while online store attributes and comment attributes have greater effects on the old NS ACs. Finally, after the implementation of the new NS, the premium for the new NS energy-efficiency label is lower than that of the old one.