Evaluating the Economic and Social Implications of Participation in Clean Vehicle Rebate Programs: Who’s In,Who’s Out?

To motivate consumers to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, governments have established national and state incentives to change purchasing behaviors. With California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) as a case study, this paper assesses the distribution of rebates across census tracts and socioeconomic divisions. Race–ethnicity, income, and socioeconomic and environmental disadvantage were used to understand variations in rebate allocation across census tracts in California between 2010 and 2015. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and negative binomial regressions were conducted to identify the definitive effect that income played in obtaining rebates: wealthier census tracts secure more rebates. Furthermore, this analysis determined a significant and negative relationship between the proportion of Hispanic and African-American residents and the number of rebates received per household, even when controlling for income. These findings suggest that the distribution of CVRP rebates is problematic across economic and racial–ethnic lines, especially given current policies pertaining to climate change equity. This paper aims to inform researchers and policy makers about the barriers of rebate access and provides a discussion to address this de facto bias in rebate allocation by income and race–ethnicity.