If the pattern of appliance use varies between households, then we expect that appliance replacement cycle also varies between households. Although many studies identified early adopters of new energy-efficient products, few studies have examined households that have been using old energy-inefficient products and how their characteristics are associated with product replacement. In this study, we initially modify a survival function and develop an economic model to evaluate the impact of household characteristics on appliance replacement. We subsequently apply the model in microlevel data analysis from the Survey on Carbon Dioxide Emission from Households obtained from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan. We use information about age distribution of refrigerators (REFs) and examine how family size, household income, and age of household’s head affect the replacement cycle of REFs. Our empirical results reveal that (1) large-sized, (2) high-income, and (3) young households replace REFs more rapidly. These findings suggest that policies that encourage small-sized, elderly, and low-income households to replace old appliances are needed.

如果家用电器的使用方式在家庭之间有所不同，那么我们预计家用电器的更换周期在各个家庭之间也会有所不同。尽管许多研究确定了新的节能产品的早期采用者，但很少有研究检查使用过旧节能产品的家庭以及其特性与产品更换的关系。在这项研究中，我们首先修改了生存函数，并开发了一种经济模型来评估家庭特征对设备更换的影响。随后，我们从日本环境省获得的《家庭二氧化碳排放调查》的微观水平数据分析中应用了该模型。我们使用有关冰箱的年龄分布（REF）的信息，并研究家庭人数，家庭收入，户主的年龄和年龄影响REF的更换周期。我们的经验结果表明，（1）大型家庭，（2）高收入家庭和（3）年轻家庭更快地替换了REF。这些发现表明，需要鼓励小型，老年人和低收入家庭更换旧家电的政策。