Economic Modelling of Sustainable Structures in Private Consumption. An Analysis of Heating and Transport

Changes in consumption processes are increasingly recognised as important steps towards sustainable development. The empirical study for Austria aims at integrating aspects of sustainable consumption into economic modelling. This is done within a microeconomic consumption model using household production functions for the relevant services for mobility and heating. In contrast to a strictly neo-classical model, in this approach capital stock adjustment is not solely determined by relative prices but institutional and non-economic factors as well. The demand for goods and services is then the result of the decisions with respect to the capital stock.