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Energy poverty and public health: Global evidence

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  • Pan, Lei
  • Biru, Ashenafi
  • Lettu, Sandra

Abstract

The impacts of energy poverty on a range of development goals have been widely examined in the literature; however, how energy poverty affects public health has yet to be studied. Using annual data for a broad panel of 175 countries over the period 2000 to 2018, this paper investigates the effect of energy poverty on public health. To identify the causal effect of energy poverty on public health and tackle the issue of endogeneity, we rely on Oster's (2019) bound analysis and the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation. Our results show that energy poverty has a detrimental effect on public health. We also find that living standards can serve as a channel through which energy poverty influences health, and that countries with higher standards of living weaken the negative effect of energy poverty on public health. Our results are robust across various specifications and measures of health indicators. Our findings have important implications for policies in public health and transitions to renewable energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Pan, Lei & Biru, Ashenafi & Lettu, Sandra, 2021. "Energy poverty and public health: Global evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:101:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321003170
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105423
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy poverty; Access to electricity; Health; Death rate; Life expectancy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

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