Abstract
Research on the determinants of direct and indirect energy use has identified a range of relevant socio-economic factors. However, we still know little about possible influences of people's health on their energy use. Do people in poor health use less energy because they are on lower incomes, or do they have additional domestic energy needs as they spend more time at home? Does poor health reduce mobility for all or just some (environmentally-friendly) modes of travel? This paper examines these questions through analysis of the representative UK Understanding Society survey. We find that poor health is generally linked to lower home energy use and lower engagement in all forms of travel. However, once we control for income and other socio-demographic factors, poor health is related to higher electricity consumption. These findings have important policy implications as it means that people in poor health would be additionally burdened by higher cost of electricity but, due to their low mobility, less so by higher cost of energy-intensive forms of travel. While promoting good health could support environmentally-friendly travel, additional measures would be required to prevent a rise of energy-intensive modes of travel.
Highlights
From a policy perspective, it is important to understand the ways in which socio-economic factors influence people’s energy use because it shows which groups are likely to be especially affected by higher energy prices or taxes which may arise from energy reduction or climate change mitigation policies
We argue that health is a policy-relevant factor for energy use which deserves further attention
This paper investigates the role of health status for energy use
Summary
It is important to understand the ways in which socio-economic factors influence people’s energy use because it shows which groups are likely to be especially affected by higher energy prices or taxes which may arise from energy reduction or climate change mitigation policies. Lacking are studies that compare the relationships between health and energy use across behavioural domains such as heating and electricity use in the home, or different forms of travel We think this is important because the relationship between health status and energy consumption might vary across these domains, requiring a more differentiated policy approach. Instead of just studying bivariate relationships between energy use and health, one needs to control for these socio-demographic characteristics to establish whether health status makes an additional difference to people’s energy use, holding all other factors constant. To carry out this type of investigation, we use micro-level household and individual data from the representative United Kingdom (UK) survey Understanding Society [34], examining different types of energy use separately and controlling for various socio-demographic characteristics.
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