Electricity consumption and ICT in the French service sector

Abstract

The paper documents the evolution of electricity use and the development of information and communication (IC) technologies in the French service sector. To that purpose, we put together two data sets documenting electricity consumption and the diffusion of IC capital goods. Using a simple factor demand model, we estimate the structural parameters of the model using both the time series and the cross-sectional dimension of the data, and allow for a specific effect of IC capital goods on the efficiency of electricity in production. We obtain robust results showing that, once controlled for technical progress, prices, and heated areas, electricity intensity of production increases with computers and software, while it decreases with the diffusion of communication device.