Premium
Behavioral economic analysis of demand for fuel in North America
Author(s) -
Reed Derek D.,
Partington Scott W.,
Kaplan Brent A.,
Roma Peter G.,
Hursh Steven R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1002/jaba.64
Subject(s) - psychology , behavioral analysis , economic analysis , applied behavior analysis , token economy , public economics , autism , reinforcement , developmental psychology , social psychology , economics , agricultural economics
Emerging research clearly indicates that human behavior is contributing to climate change, notably, the use of fossil fuels as a form of energy for everyday behaviors. This dependence on oil in North America has led to assertions that the current level of demand is the social equivalent to an “addiction.” The purpose of this study was to apply behavioral economic demand curves—a broadly applicable method of evaluating relative reinforcer efficacy in behavioral models of addiction—to North American oil consumption to examine whether such claims of oil addiction are warranted. Toward this end, we examined government data from the United States and Canada on per capita energy consumption for transportation and oil prices between 1995 and 2008. Our findings indicate that consumption either persisted or simultaneously increased despite sharp increases in oil price per barrel over the past decade.