Abstract Since the late 1980s, China has developed an extensive program of energy efficiency standards and labeling for household appliances. This development closely traces the rapid growth of appliance ownership and the domestic appliance industry and is an integral part of China's...

This paper studies the effect of mandatory eco-labels for durable goods using a bunching design. I exploit discontinuities in the European energy label for washing machines to document consumer inattention in response to the salient quality signal given by the label. The effect on the...