Akiko Nasuda

The use of full-battery electric vehicles is an essential strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. This study examined the transition to full-battery electric vehicles by conducting a cross-sectional household survey in 2023 that collected information on vehicle preferences, evaluations, purchase intentions, environmental attitudes, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The results show that among households using a vehicle as their primary mode of transportation, approximately 89% relied on fossil fuel vehicles, whereas only 6% used electric vehicles. The study further finds that acceptance of vehicles during inter-vehicle transitions is closely linked to energy type: households currently owning fossil fuel vehicles exhibited a high likelihood of repurchasing a fossil fuel vehicle, while electric vehicle owners were more inclined to choose another electric vehicle across cities and areas of different sizes. Households that own electric vehicles tend to report higher levels of well-being compared with those that own fossil fuel vehicles. In addition, sufficient charging infrastructure, stronger knowledge of environmental issues, participation in altruistic donation activities, and cooperative behavior positively influenced electric vehicle adoption. These findings suggest several policy implications, including the expansion of charging stations for business and public use, setting reasonable vehicle prices, improving charging speed, developing electric vehicles suitable for large families, and encouraging individuals to gain initial driving experience with electric vehicles to promote adoption.

This study investigates single individuals’ different choices over time in terms of use (labor supply, home production time input, leisure) and consumption (market consumption goods, home production goods) and provides evidence to explain the differences. To this effect, we use the structural model of the Almost Ideal Demand System with a Cobb-Douglas home production function. The results are summarized as follows. Regarding labor supply, both women and men have the same working willingness in the labor market when women are paid as much as men. Overall, although the regional gender income gap appears different between major metropolitan areas and non-major metropolitan areas, our results indicate that the income gap would disappear by diminishing the wage gap. However, for home production, the gender gap persists when women apply the same conditions as men, although the gap is small. Policy implied that reducing the gender wage gap is an important tool to encourage single women to work as men in the workplace regardless of the area.