Determinants Of Energy Poverty Research Articles

Determinants of energy poverty: Trends in Spain in times of economic change (2006–2021)

Determinants of energy poverty: Trends in Spain in times of economic change (2006–2021)

Enerji Yoksulluğunun Ölçülmesine İlişkin Literatür İncelemesi

This article analyzes the studies on energy poverty and its measurement between 2004 and 2022. A search of the Web of Science database with the keyword "energy poverty measurement" yielded 195 articles, among which 69 articles were found. In the study, first of all, information about the definition of energy poverty, the problems it causes and its determining criteria. In the next step, other determinants of energy poverty are explained with the help of graphs and tables. In the methodology section, the articles are analyzed in detail according to the economic development of the countries and the measurement models used. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented and future work is suggested to find a universally accepted measurement model.

International sanctions and energy poverty in target developing countries

Access to electricity and clean, modern cooking technologies is still a concern in developing countries. However, the literature on the determinants of energy poverty seems to neglect the role of international sanctions. This study establishes, for the first time, the empirical relationship between international sanctions and energy poverty in target developing countries. We use data from a large panel of 97 countries regularly sanctioned over the period 1996–2019. Using the fixed effects method and logistic regression, we find that international sanctions increase energy poverty in the target countries. Specifically, the imposition of UN, EU, US, unilateral and plurilateral sanctions leads to a reduction in energy consumption, access to electricity, and clean and modern cooking technologies. For robustness, alternative sanctions measures (travel, financial, trade, military, arms, economic, non-economic, and intensity), additional control variables, as well as an alternative estimation strategy, were considered. In order to provide robust policy recommendations, we explain the mechanisms by which international sanctions affect energy poverty, including human capital, energy efficiency, income inequality, and economic growth.

Remittances and energy poverty: Fresh evidence from developing countries

A growing body of literature highlights the importance of access to energy for economic growth and its crucial role in achieving other sustainable development goals. Given that this branch of the literature is relatively new, the determinants of energy poverty have not yet been fully explored. This study takes a fresh look and contributes to the growing literature by providing one of the first studies of the effect of remittances on energy poverty in developing countries. We employed the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square and the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square. The results survive a battery of robustness checks, providing robust evidence supporting the claim that remittances reduce energy poverty in developing countries. Further analyses from the three-stage least squares estimator enable us to identify income inequality, economic growth, and education as some transmission channels through which remittances may reduce energy poverty. This study provides important implications in terms of policy recommendations.

The impact of renewable energy technology innovation on energy poverty: Does climate risk matter?

While the literature has explored various determinants of energy poverty (EP), there is scant knowledge about the linkage between renewable energy technology (RET) innovation and EP. Based on an evaluation index system of energy poverty, this research applies the method of moment quantile regression model to examine whether and how RET innovation affects EP. Using panel data from China's 30 provinces for the 2003–2019 period, the results first reveal that RET innovation does relieve EP. Second, both linear and nonlinear models confirm that climate risk exhibits both a moderating effect and threshold effect on the relationship between them. When the climate risk index is low, RET innovation is conducive to the alleviation of EP; otherwise, the opposite is true. Finally, this moderating effect shows obvious spatial heterogeneity that only exists in western China and is not significant in the central and eastern region. Our findings thus enrich the extant literature and provide insights into targeted energy poverty reduction and achieving sustainable energy development.

Impacts of bilateral trade on energy affordability and accessibility across Europe: Does economic globalization reduce energy poverty?

Energy poverty is a major issue in both developing and developed countries, and its mitigation is a key aspect of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the determinants of energy poverty are relatively less explored. The current research adds to the scholarly literature on energy affordability and accessibility for the lowest 20% poor European population. This is one of the first studies to examine the impact of bilateral trade, globalization, and bureaucratic quality on energy poverty. A variety of robust panel data techniques were used to investigate the role of bilateral trade for energy poverty, which includes cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), common correlated effects generalized method of moments (CCE-GMM), and instrumental variable regression. This study employs annual data (from 2000 to 2019) from 27 European countries. The econometric findings revealed that bilateral trade increases energy accessibility and causes energy prices to upsurge. Economic globalization was determined to increase energy expenses and reduce access to fuel for the poorest people in Europe. In the future, bilateral trade should be reviewed to ensure the following criteria. All European countries receive maximum benefit from it; low-income countries should be supported; and environmental harm should be minimized. These empirical findings are robust across model settings, enabling us to suggest novel conclusions on energy accessibility and affordability in accordance with the SDGs.

Examining the state of energy poverty in Rwanda: An inter-indicator analysis

This paper adopted an inter-indicator analytical approach to investigate the state of energy poverty in Rwanda. It used a nationally representative sample of 14458 households from Rwanda's Integrated Living Standard Survey conducted between October 2016 and October 2017. The first indicator entailed a multidimensional analysis of energy poverty using eleven pointers of energy deprivation. Each pointer was assigned a weight using principal component analysis to form a household energy poverty index. The paper also employed a ‘modified’ expenditure-based approach that emphasizes affordability and accessibility. This is the approach on which the second indicator of energy poverty was based. This constituted an examination of different levels of household income and energy expenditure patterns as well as the use of biomass for cooking. The results from the multidimensional analysis revealed that the most energy-poor households were concentrated in the southern (30.15%), western (27.69%) and northern (24.86%) provinces of Rwanda. In contrast, ‘the least energy-poor are mostly found in urban areas of the country. A cross-comparison with the second approach showed different magnitudes of energy poverty incidences. Nonetheless, similar trends were observed in terms of areas of concentration of energy poverty. Last, the results from multilevel binary logistic regressions showed that household size, income poverty, education level of the head of the family, rural location and Kigali residentship were determinants of energy poverty.

The influences of government spending on energy poverty: Evidence from developing countries

The literature has documented different determinants of energy poverty, i.e., income poverty, energy price, technology, and financial development. Meanwhile, government policies through public spending might play a critical role in alleviating energy poverty, but little attention has been paid to this factor. This study endeavours to investigate the effects of government spending on energy poverty in a global sample of 56 developing countries. Specifically, the study firstly examines the influence of government spending on four proxies of energy poverty. Secondly, we examine the role of institutional quality as the rule of the game in society, in the effects of government spending. Lastly, we investigate the channels of the effects of government spending on energy poverty. Applying several panel estimates, the significance of the results is threefold. First, government spending has a U-shaped effect on energy poverty, implying that increases in government spending may alleviate energy poverty until a certain level; however, from this tipping point, any excessive spending would be harmful to energy prosperity. Second, institutional quality serves as a critical catalyst in shaping the effects of government spending. Third, the effects of government spending are found to be transmitted through two channels: economic growth and income inequality.

Energy poverty in rural West Africa and its determinants: Evidence from Senegal and Togo

This research evaluates the levels and the determinants of energy poverty in rural West Africa using countrywide primary data for Senegal and Togo. The study estimates and compares various indicators for measuring energy poverty and a newly proposed multidimensional measure. The results suggest that rural energy poverty levels vary from 31.2 to 98.5 percent in Senegal and 53.5 to 98.8 percent in Togo. Measures that are based on per capita energy consumption generate higher energy poverty rates in rural Senegal than Togo due to the relative scarcity of fire wood and the relatively larger household size in Senegal. Multidimensional and expenditure-based energy measures generate higher energy poverty in rural Togo than Senegal, reflecting the higher per capita income and greater access to modern energy sources in Senegal compared to Togo. Household income, fertility and the type of fuel used are the main drivers of household energy poverty in both countries. Furthermore, rural households tend to have greater energy consumption when the decisions about energy purchase are made jointly by male and female household members. Thus, public policies that improve rural households' income, foster women's participation in decision-making, and provide affordable energy would help reduce energy poverty in both countries.

Energy poverty in Sri Lanka

Understanding energy poverty is fundamental to any efforts to alleviate it. This paper, using the latest (2016) Sri Lankan Household Income and Expenditure survey data, examines the incidence, intensity, inequality, and determinants of energy poverty in Sri Lanka, by constructing the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI). The MEPI is calculated using a set of seven key indicators representing multiple dimensions of energy and assigning weights by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Sri Lankan households, on average, are experiencing a moderate level of energy poverty (with MEPI of 0.431) where the lack of access to modern cooking fuel is the largest contributor to energy poverty. Results of this study revealed notable differences in energy poverty by gender, age, ethnicity, and income group of the head of the household and by sub-national location of the household. Significant differences in inequality in energy poverty were also observed by sub-national location and income. While energy-poor households are not necessarily always income-poor, income and other socio-demographic and geographical factors are strongly associated with energy poverty in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study raise alarms for the possible adverse implications on health and education attainment of the energy-poor. Overall, the results provide valuable policy insights into one of the most neglected dimensions of the post-war development policy agenda in Sri Lanka, in particular, and other developing countries, in general.

Financial development and energy poverty: global evidence.

This study aims to shed light on the determinants of energy poverty by examining the role of financial development. Notably, the study analyses the multidimensional effects of financial development (including two subsectors and three dimensions on five indicators of energy poverty). Various estimates are applied with a global sample of 65 economies, consisting of 36 low- and lower-middle-income economies and 29 upper-middle-income economies for 2002-2015. First, financial development can alleviate energy poverty. Second, the results are properly consistent across the two subsectors and three dimensions. Third, the two subsectors and three dimensions of financial development are found to reduce energy poverty in low- and lower-middle-income economies but have heteroscedastic effects in upper-middle-income economies.

Ethnic diversity, energy poverty and the mediating role of trust: Evidence from household panel data for Australia

Abstract Energy poverty is now a major concern on the public policy agenda in many countries. However, evidence on the determinants of energy poverty is relatively scant. Our study contributes to the debate on the determinants of energy poverty by being the first to examine the impact of ethnic diversity on household energy poverty. Using 12 waves of longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we find that, in Australia, ethnic diversity is positively associated with energy poverty. Our preferred instrumented estimates suggest that a standard deviation increase in ethnic diversity is associated with a 0.103–0.422 standard deviation increase in energy poverty, depending on how energy poverty is measured. This finding is generally robust to alternative ways of measuring ethnic diversity and energy poverty. We identify trust as an important channel through which ethnic diversity operates and point to the need for policies that engender social capital in multicultural societies as a means to harness the benefits of diversity.

Letting the Gini out of the fuel poverty bottle? Correlating cold homes and income inequality in European Union countries

The last 3–4 decades have seen large increases in economic inequality within high-income countries. A newly emerging strand of research is exploring how this impacts on energy consumption. However, as yet there are no macro-level studies on how economic inequality relates to energy poverty on the national level. This paper investigates whether income inequality in EU countries is correlated with energy poverty by one of its definitions: a household’s inability to keep their home adequately warm. Using country-level data for all 28 EU countries for all years 2009–2017, I regress the percentage of households who cannot keep their home adequately warm, against a set of independent variables including: the Gini index as a measure of income inequality; GDP per capita; the number of heating degree days; and several other likely determinants of energy poverty. I find the Gini index, GDP per capita and the number of heating degree days to be persistently strong and statistically significant predictors of the percentage unable to heat their homes, while the effects of the Gini index increase disproportionately as this percentage increases. This suggests that macroeconomic policy needs to be addressed, along with energy efficiency policy, to relieve the discomfort of cold homes in European winters.

Determinants of energy poverty in South Africa

This paper provides empirical evidence on the determinants of energy poverty in South African households using the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS, 2012), while controlling for individual, household and demographic characteristics. This is formulated within a logistic regression framework, while defining energy poverty using the expenditure approach consistent with the definition by the Department of Energy (DoE) of South Africa. The model reveals that household expenditure patterns, race, education level, household and dwelling size, location of the household and access to electricity are important factors in explaining the state of energy in South African households. This paper also discusses limitations in defining energy poverty using the expenditure approach. Finally, some recommendations are made for regulators and policy makers.

Analysis of energy poverty and its implications for sustainable development in Nigeria

AbstractThis study estimates and analyzes the incidence and determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria based on a simple multidimensional energy poverty index that it constructed. It also highlights the implications of energy poverty for sustainable development in Nigeria. The headcount ratio and the logistic regression technique are used. The study utilizes the Nigeria Living Standard Survey data set of 2004, obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The estimates show that energy poverty is pervasive in the country; it afflicts over 75 per cent of the population. The determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria include household size; educational level, gender and age of household head; general poverty; region of residence; and proportion of working members in the household. Efforts should be made to adequately tackle the problem of energy poverty in Nigeria. This is a major way to put the country on the path to rapid and sustainable development.