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UPSC CSAT Tough Reading Comprehension 31 — The Rebound Effect: Why Greater Efficiency Can Sometimes Increase Consumption

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Sample Questions from UPSC CSAT Tough Reading Comprehension 31 — The Rebound Effect: Why Greater Efficiency Can Sometimes Increase Consumption

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Q1. Which one of the following best captures the central argument of the passage?

A. Efficiency improvements generally fail to conserve resources because lower costs inevitably generate an equal or greater increase in demand.

B. Technological efficiency reduces resource use only in developed economies, whereas in developing economies it primarily increases consumption.

C. Efficiency can reduce resource use per unit of service, but its effect on total consumption depends on behavioural and economic responses; therefore aggregate outcomes must be evaluated empirically rather than inferred from engineering efficiency alone.

D. Resource conservation policies should prioritize restrictions on consumption rather than technological improvements in efficiency.

Q2. A new air-conditioner uses 40 percent less electricity per hour than the model it replaces. After purchasing it, a household increases its cooling hours sufficiently that its total electricity consumption for cooling falls by only 25 percent. Which one of the following is the most appropriate interpretation?

A. The efficiency improvement has failed because actual electricity savings are smaller than the engineering estimate.

B. A rebound effect has occurred, but the technology has still produced a net reduction in electricity consumption for cooling.

C. Backfire has occurred because the household increased its use of cooling after efficiency improved.

D. No rebound has occurred because total electricity consumption for cooling still declined.

Q3. With reference to the passage, consider the following statements: 1. The existence of a rebound effect necessarily implies that total resource consumption increases after an efficiency improvement. 2. Savings generated by efficiency may indirectly create resource consumption through expenditure on other goods and services. 3. Increased energy consumption following an efficiency improvement may sometimes represent an increase in human welfare rather than a failure of policy. 4. Long-term rebound effects must necessarily be smaller than short-term rebound effects because consumers gradually become accustomed to efficient technologies. Which of the statements given above are consistent with the passage?

A. 1 and 2 only

B. 2 and 3 only

C. 1, 2 and 4 only

D. 2, 3 and 4 only

Q4. Which one of the following assumptions is most essential to the argument that improvements in efficiency need not produce proportional reductions in total resource consumption?

A. Consumers are generally unaware of the environmental consequences of their consumption decisions.

B. The quantity of a service demanded can respond to changes in the effective cost of obtaining that service.

C. Technological progress usually reduces the market price of every resource used in production.

D. Most consumers prefer increased consumption to saving the money generated by efficiency improvements.

Q5. Which one of the following best distinguishes the rebound effect from 'backfire' as these terms are used in the passage?

A. Rebound refers to behavioural responses by households, whereas backfire refers exclusively to responses by firms and industries.

B. Rebound occurs when additional demand offsets some portion of potential resource savings, whereas backfire is the extreme case in which the offset is large enough for total resource use to exceed its pre-efficiency level.

C. Rebound describes short-term responses to efficiency, whereas backfire describes the same phenomenon over longer periods.

D. Rebound occurs when efficiency lowers resource prices, whereas backfire occurs when efficiency raises the price of complementary resources.

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