IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i18p5761-d634477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Escaping Energy Poverty: A Comparative Analysis of 17 European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Lilia Karpinska

    (Department of Microeconomy, Cracow University of Economics, 31-510 Cracow, Poland)

  • Sławomir Śmiech

    (Department of Statistics, Cracow University of Economics, 31-510 Cracow, Poland)

Abstract

A comparative analysis of energy poverty transitions and persistence can provide valuable suggestions for long-term policy actions. This study examines the dynamics of energy poverty in 17 European countries based on the longitudinal household data from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, waves 2015–2018. The study pursues two goals. First, we explore households’ chances of transitioning in and out of energy poverty in each country following the discrete-time Markov process. On average, the probability to stay in energy poverty is 51.5%, and there is a lot of heterogeneity across countries. Households in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Lithuania are quite close to the energy poverty trap. Second, we identify factors that help energy-poor households leave energy poverty. Demographic, technical, and socio-economic factors are the drivers in escaping energy poverty, which suggests common EU policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilia Karpinska & Sławomir Śmiech, 2021. "Escaping Energy Poverty: A Comparative Analysis of 17 European Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5761-:d:634477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5761/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5761/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Euan Phimister, Esperanza Vera-Toscano and Deborah Roberts, 2015. "The Dynamics of Energy Poverty: Evidence from Spain," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Waddams Price, Catherine & Brazier, Karl & Wang, Wenjia, 2012. "Objective and subjective measures of fuel poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 33-39.
    3. Roberts, Deborah & Vera-Toscano, Esperanza & Phimister, Euan, 2015. "Energy poverty in the UK: Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?," 89th Annual Conference, April 13-15, 2015, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 204213, Agricultural Economics Society.
    4. Bates, Douglas & Mächler, Martin & Bolker, Ben & Walker, Steve, 2015. "Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 67(i01).
    5. Chaton, Corinne & Lacroix, Elie, 2018. "Does France have a fuel poverty trap?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 258-268.
    6. Burton Singer & Seymour Spilerman, 1976. "Some Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Longitudinal Surveys," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 447-474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Legendre, Bérangère & Ricci, Olivia, 2015. "Measuring fuel poverty in France: Which households are the most fuel vulnerable?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 620-628.
    8. Lorenzo Cappellari & Stephen P. Jemkins, 2002. "Who Stays Poor? Who Becomes Poor? Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 60-67, March.
    9. Betto, Frida & Garengo, Patrizia & Lorenzoni, Arturo, 2020. "A new measure of Italian hidden energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Romanic Baudu & Dorothée Charlier & Bérangère Legendre, 2020. "Fuel Poverty and Health: a Panel Data Analysis," Working Papers 2020.04, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    11. Jahedi, Salar & Méndez, Fabio, 2014. "On the advantages and disadvantages of subjective measures," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 97-114.
    12. Stefan Bouzarovski & Sergio Tirado Herrero, 2017. "Geographies of injustice: the socio-spatial determinants of energy poverty in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 27-50, January.
    13. Duncan, Greg J & Gustafsson, Bjorn & Hauser, Richard & Schmauss, Gunther & Messinger, Hans & Muffels, Ruud & Nolan, Brian, 1993. "Poverty Dynamics in Eight Countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 6(3), pages 215-234.
    14. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Farrell, Lisa, 2020. "Fuel poverty and subjective wellbeing," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Apostolos Arsenopoulos & Vangelis Marinakis & Konstantinos Koasidis & Andriana Stavrakaki & John Psarras, 2020. "Assessing Resilience to Energy Poverty in Europe through a Multi-Criteria Analysis Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-22, June.
    16. John Hills, 2012. "Final report of the Hills Independent Fuel Poverty Review: Getting the Measure of Fuel Poverty," CASE Reports casereport72, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    17. Deller, David, 2018. "Energy affordability in the EU: The risks of metric driven policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 168-182.
    18. Roberts, Deborah & Vera-Toscano, Esperanza & Phimister, Euan, 2015. "Fuel poverty in the UK: Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 216-223.
    19. Thomson, Harriet & Snell, Carolyn, 2013. "Quantifying the prevalence of fuel poverty across the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 563-572.
    20. Kahouli, Sondès, 2020. "An economic approach to the study of the relationship between housing hazards and health: The case of residential fuel poverty in France," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    21. Karpinska, Lilia & Śmiech, Sławomir, 2021. "Breaking the cycle of energy poverty. Will Poland make it?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    22. Recalde, Martina & Peralta, Andrés & Oliveras, Laura & Tirado-Herrero, Sergio & Borrell, Carme & Palència, Laia & Gotsens, Mercè & Artazcoz, Lucia & Marí-Dell’Olmo, Marc, 2019. "Structural energy poverty vulnerability and excess winter mortality in the European Union: Exploring the association between structural determinants and health," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    23. Primc, Kaja & Slabe-Erker, Renata & Majcen, Boris, 2019. "Constructing energy poverty profiles for an effective energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 727-734.
    24. Alem, Yonas & Demeke, Eyoual, 2020. "The persistence of energy poverty: A dynamic probit analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    25. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2021. "Energy poverty and health: Panel data evidence from Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    26. Stefan Bouzarovski & Harriet Thomson & Marine Cornelis, 2021. "Confronting Energy Poverty in Europe: A Research and Policy Agenda," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, February.
    27. Kearns, Ade & Whitley, Elise & Curl, Angela, 2019. "Occupant behaviour as a fourth driver of fuel poverty (aka warmth & energy deprivation)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1143-1155.
    28. repec:aen:journl:eeep4_1_phimister is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Blanka Tundys & Agnieszka Bretyn & Maciej Urbaniak, 2021. "Energy Poverty and Sustainable Economic Development: An Exploration of Correlations and Interdependencies in European Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-25, November.
    2. Drago, Carlo & Gatto, Andrea, 2023. "Gauging energy poverty in developing countries with a composite metric of electricity access," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karpinska, Lilia & Śmiech, Sławomir, 2021. "Breaking the cycle of energy poverty. Will Poland make it?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Awan, Ashar & Bilgili, Faik & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2022. "Energy poverty trends and determinants in Pakistan: Empirical evidence from eight waves of HIES 1998–2019," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Drescher, Katharina & Janzen, Benedikt, 2021. "Determinants, persistence, and dynamics of energy poverty: An empirical assessment using German household survey data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Kahouli, Sondès & Okushima, Shinichiro, 2021. "Regional energy poverty reevaluated: A direct measurement approach applied to France and Japan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Llorca, Manuel & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2021. "Alleviating energy poverty in Europe: Front-runners and laggards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Llorca, Manuel & Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2020. "Objective vs. subjective fuel poverty and self-assessed health," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Huang, Yatao & Jiao, Wenxian & Wang, Kang & Li, Erling & Yan, Yutong & Chen, Jingyang & Guo, Xuanxuan, 2022. "Examining the multidimensional energy poverty trap and its determinants: An empirical analysis at household and community levels in six provinces of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Deller, David & Turner, Glen & Waddams Price, Catherine, 2021. "Energy poverty indicators: Inconsistencies, implications and where next?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Recep Ulucak & Ramazan Sari & Seyfettin Erdogan & Rui Alexandre Castanho, 2021. "Bibliometric Literature Analysis of a Multi-Dimensional Sustainable Development Issue: Energy Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    10. Davillas, Apostolos & Burlinson, Andrew & Liu, Hui-Hsuan, 2022. "Getting warmer: Fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    11. Pedro Macedo & Mara Madaleno & Victor Moutinho, 2022. "A New Composite Indicator for Assessing Energy Poverty Using Normalized Entropy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1139-1163, October.
    12. Igawa, Moegi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2022. "Energy poverty and income inequality: An economic analysis of 37 countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    13. Blanka Tundys & Agnieszka Bretyn & Maciej Urbaniak, 2021. "Energy Poverty and Sustainable Economic Development: An Exploration of Correlations and Interdependencies in European Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-25, November.
    14. Rafi, Muhammed & Naseef, Mohemmad & Prasad, Salu, 2021. "Multidimensional energy poverty and human capital development: Empirical evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Bagnoli, Lisa & Bertoméu-Sánchez, Salvador, 2022. "How effective has the electricity social rate been in reducing energy poverty in Spain?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    16. Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Orea, Luis & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2019. "Fuel poverty and Well-Being:A consumer theory and stochastic frontier approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 22-32.
    17. Siksnelyte-Butkiene, Indre & Streimikiene, Dalia & Balezentis, Tomas, 2022. "Addressing sustainability issues in transition to carbon-neutral sustainable society with multi-criteria analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    18. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2021. "Locus of control and energy poverty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    19. Paudel, Jayash, 2021. "Why Are People Energy Poor? Evidence From Ethnic Fractionalization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    20. Cheng, Zhiming & Tani, Massimiliano & Wang, Haining, 2021. "Energy poverty and entrepreneurship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5761-:d:634477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.