Modelling consumer preferences and technological change: Survey of attitudes to hybrid vehicles

The goal of this research project was to introduce realistic consumer decision behaviour of choosing between newer low-emission vehicle technologies and the conventional vehicle technology into the ClMS model. This is a "hybrid" energy economy model that combines behavioural realism, macroeconomic feedback, and technology explicitness into its simulations to facilitate useful modelling outputs for policy makers to make better policy decisions. My research focused on quantifying the consumer's decision process between the hybrid gas-electric vehicle (HEV) and the conventional gasoline vehicle with increased market penetration ("the neighbour effect"). Through the use of a national survey and the building of a discrete choice model, I found that consumer values for non-monetary attributes change with market shares of HEVs. This novel finding was translated into ClMS model parameters in order to perform policy simulations that are more behaviourally realistic.