Abstract
The present paper focuses primarily on investigating whether energy-vulnerable households are more prone to informative, market, and behavioral biases. In this direction, a stated preference approach was used to elicit information about human behavior and cognitive barriers in the context of energy poverty based on both subjective and objective indicators. For the purposes of the survey, a questionnaire was developed that included around 40 questions about housing conditions and information, market, and behavioral barriers related to energy efficiency, energy vulnerability, etc., and specific survey hypotheses were tested employing non-parametric tests. The survey was carried out between November 2020 and January 2021 involving residents of Metsovo, a mountain settlement in Greece. In total, 303 participants took place in the survey through personal interviews, which were conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic-related distancing measures, using a video platform. The analysis shows that households that face thermal discomfort or are in arrears on energy bills seem to be more prone to certain behavioral and other biases. This conclusion is not confirmed for households that face condensation, mold and damp problems or are classified as energy-poor under the “ten percent rule”. The main conclusion drawn is that the income status of the household plays a greater role compared to its classification as energy vulnerable. Nevertheless, the findings of the study need to be confirmed by future research, because the research specifically on how energy poverty affects people’s decision making is extremely limited. In any case, the results are worrisome and illustrate the need for more effective energy poverty policies that will take into account the effects of scarcity on household decision making.
Highlights
Energy poverty (EP) is a crucial socio-economic problem of the current society, as it deprives people of a basic standard of living and quality of life
The main objective indicators suggested by the Energy Poverty Observatory (EPOV) are the 2M indicator “high share of energy expenditure in income”, i.e., the percentage of the population whose share of energy expenditure in income exceeds twice the national median share, and the M/2 indicator “low absolute energy expenditure”, i.e., the percentage of the population whose energy expenditure is below the national median [5]
Social and environmental causes, the failure to escape from poverty or, in this particular case, energy poverty, may be influenced by psychological aspects that may well be addressed at the individual level, since a person’s financial condition is regulated to some extent by the economic decisions that they make [20]
Summary
Energy poverty (EP) is a crucial socio-economic problem of the current society, as it deprives people of a basic standard of living and quality of life. It has not been studied whether energy-vulnerable households are more prone to cognitive, behavioral or other biases and, to the energy paradox. The related literature includes a study on the impact of cognitive biases on energy-vulnerable households [13], which analyzes recent findings from behavioral sciences, and a quantitative survey on the Societies 2021, 11, 126 decision making of vulnerable households linked to energy efficiency, without focusing on behavioral barriers [22] Aiming to fill this gap, this study uses a stated preference approach to elicit information about human behavior and cognitive barriers in the context of energy poverty.
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