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How to Reduce the Rebound Effect?

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Abstract

There are different definitions of the rebound effect that depend on the definition of resource efficiency or energy efficiency and on the boundaries drawn (cf., e.g., Hertwich 2005; Schettkat 2009). For the purpose of this paper, the following definition is applied: If the use of an environmentally, socially or economically more efficient good (e.g., an infrastructure that enables an increase in resource efficiency or allows people to save time, or a product or service that is resource-efficient and saves costs of consumers) induces effects that partly or even fully compensate the ecological, social or economic efficiency gains achieved by this good, this can be called a rebound effect. So there is a link between using the good and the side effects observed. In other words, general economic innovation and growth effects should not be called rebound effects following this definition.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Irrek .

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Irrek, W. (2011). How to Reduce the Rebound Effect?. In: Bleischwitz, R., Welfens, P., Zhang, Z. (eds) International Economics of Resource Efficiency. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2601-2_13

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