Households In Denmark Research Articles

The relationship between retail price promotions and household-level food waste: Busting the myth with behavioural data?

In the debate about food waste, pricing mechanisms used in marketing are criticized to trigger consumers to over-purchase and consequently waste food. Despite the ambiguity of the scientific results on the matter, the criticism persists, prompting many retailers to abolish ‘buy one get one free’ price promotions. However, evidence whether this initiative is justified are lacking. In this paper we aim to empirically explore the relation between retail price promotions and household level food waste. We collected actual food waste data, gathered discount shopping behaviour data through shopping receipts, as well as attitudinal data through a questionnaire from a sample of 118 households in Denmark. Our results provide evidence to counter the criticism and show that households with the largest actual proportion of food bought on discount waste less food, as well as those who are environmentally conscious, whereas larger households and those who lack skills in food practices waste more food.

Environmental inequality and population exposure to air pollution in Denmark

ABSTRACT This study examines the environmental inequality, which is associated with air pollution in Denmark, by modelling street concentrations at addresses of all households in Denmark, and correlating the findings on key air quality pollutants to individual household income. The study furthermore analyses the relative distribution of exposure to risks between and within different commuting areas in Denmark. The findings are discussed in relation to comparable findings in the international literature on environmental inequity and inequality of exposure to environmental risks. Overall, the study showed limited environmental inequality and weak correlations between air pollution exposure and household income in Denmark thereby deviating from most findings in the international peer literature that finds strong correlations. Likely explanations for the weak correlations may be found in strict Danish environmental regulation that reduces overall exposure to the population, and Danish laws prohibit building residential areas nearby factories or building factories nearby residential areas as part of zoning in urban planning. Also, a relatively equal income distribution in Denmark, and the relation between the geographic distribution of air pollution and income groups where low-income groups do not systematically live in polluted areas and high-income groups in less polluted areas also add to the explanation. Key policy highlights The first study to examine Danish environmental inequality associated with air pollution exposure at street level. Modelled air quality street concentrations at all residential addresses in Denmark. Analyses of environmental inequality between and within different commuting areas. Very limited environmental inequality was found between air pollution exposure and household income that deviates from most findings in the international peer literature. A better knowledge foundation on environmental inequality could inform future policy making to reduce environmental inequality.

Variability in electricity consumption by category of consumer: The impact on electricity load profiles

Residential electrification of transport and heat is changing consumption and its characteristics significantly. Previous studies have demonstrated the impact of socio-techno-economic determinants on residential consumption. However, they fail to capture the distributional characteristics of such consumer groups, which impact network planning and flexibility assessment. Using actual residential electricity consumption profile data for 720,000 households in Denmark, we demonstrate that heat pumps are more likely to influence aggregated peak consumption than electric vehicles. At the same time, other socio-economic factors, such as occupancy, dwelling area and income, show little impact. Comparing the extrapolation of a comprehensive rollout of heat pumps or electric vehicles indicates that the most common consumer category deploying heat pumps has 14% more maximum consumption during peak load hours, 46% more average consumption and twice the higher median compared to households owning an electric vehicle. Electric vehicle show already flexibility with coincidence factors that ranges between 5 and 15% with a maximum of 17% whereas heat pumps are mostly baseload. The detailed and holistic outcomes of this study support flexibility assessment and grid planning in future studies but also the operation of flexible technologies.

A Two-Layer Near-Optimal Strategy for Substation Constraint Management via Home Batteries

Within electrical distribution networks, substation constraint management requires that aggregated power demand from residential users is kept within suitable bounds. Efficiency of substation constraint management can be measured as the reduction of constraint violations w.r.t. unmanaged demand. Home batteries hold the promise of enabling efficient and user-oblivious substation constraint management. Centralized control of home batteries would achieve optimal efficiency. However, it is hardly acceptable by users, since service providers (e.g., utilities or aggregators) would directly control batteries at user premises. Unfortunately, devising efficient hierarchical control strategies, thus overcoming the above problem, is far from easy. In this article, we present a novel two-layer control strategy for home batteries that avoids direct control of home devices by the service provider and at the same time yields near-optimal substation constraint management efficiency. Our simulation results on field data from 62 households in Denmark show that the substation constraint management efficiency achieved with our approach is at least 82% of the one obtained with a theoretical optimal centralized strategy.

Pathways of less healthy diets. An investigation of the everyday food practices of men and women in low income households

ABSTRACT Dietary health is a key theme of health policy and public debates on health and inequality. The social gradient in dietary health is evident, but less is known about the processes in everyday life through which less healthy diets are shaped among people with low socio-economic status. In this mixed methods study we recruited 30 men and women living in low income households in Denmark and combined qualitative interviews about household practices with quantitative estimates of the quality of participants’ diets. The qualitative findings show that in general, the participants’ food practices were conditioned by budget restrictions and bundled with other non-food practices in their everyday life, which in most, but not all, cases conflicted with engagement in healthy eating. Only few participants reported feeling able to provide ‘proper foods’ according to their own preferences. We identified five distinct pathways through which food practices were performed. All were structured by distinct life situations which created different ways in which food practices were bundled with other practices. The quantitative estimates of participants’ diets show that none of the participants’ diets categorized as healthy. The combined analysis showed that estimated dietary quality varied between the five pathways, and that the degree of budget restraint and the practice of handling a disease in the household were notably important for the performance of food practices.

Small is beautiful? Stories of carbon footprints, socio-demographic trends and small households in Denmark

Shrinking household size is a key challenge for sustainability, simultaneously decreasing sharing and increasing resource consumption. We use the Danish Household Budget Survey and carbon intensities from EXIOBASE to characterise small households in socio-demographic cohorts along the carbon footprint spectrum. Single and dual occupant households represent 77% of the Danish carbon footprint and 73% of the sample, making these households highly relevant for climate and social policy. We identify high carbon footprint cohorts to determine potential intervention targets such as wealthy males living alone and couples in suburban areas. To add emotional depth to these characteristics we provide three stories to our results. Illuminating characteristics of high impact households provides a foundation from which to design and implement interventions to reduce the carbon consequences of the growing trend towards living alone. We also characterise low carbon footprint cohorts, with specific focus on the effects of low income, disability, energy poverty, and population density. Our study makes an original contribution using storytelling, a step in the direction of increasing empathy and compassion for the various carbon footprint cohorts and working toward socially and environmentally sustainable futures.

Towards sustainable energy consumption: Challenging heating-related practices in Denmark, Finland, and Hungary

This article presents the process and results of a practice-based intervention aimed at facilitating the time and space required to experiment with and change home heating in households, to promote socially and environmentally sustainable ways of practising thermal comfort. A central feature of the intervention, called ENERGISE Living Labs and conducted across eight European countries, was that social practices were targeted, resulting in a focus on what ‘heating is for’ rather than the process of heating in and of itself. In this article, we concentrate on the three countries with the highest reported expectations of thermal comfort and describe how 113 households in Denmark, Finland and Hungary completed a set of challenges to reduce their indoor temperature to 18 °C for four weeks in the late autumn of 2018. To facilitate alternative ways of keeping warm, the participants were supported by reflexive interviews and group discussions, and aided by tips and materials. The results demonstrate how changes in skills, competences, norms, and expectations related to indoor thermal comfort (in addition to other daily practices) are essential for more sufficient energy use. Generally, the temperature level at which people felt comfortable was reduced by an average of 1 °C, and, more importantly, participants became aware of their heating-related practices, including the underlying elements of these practices, and learned how to challenge them. The results clearly indicate the potential of practice-based interventions to promote deliberation on and change in existing socially shared expectations of comfort.

Do People Respond to the Mortgage Interest Deduction? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Denmark

Using a major reform that scaled back the mortgage interest deduction for middle- and high-income households in Denmark, we study how tax subsidies affect housing decisions. We present four main findings. First, the mortgage deduction has a precisely estimated zero effect on homeownership for high- and middle-income households. Second, the mortgage deduction has a clear effect on housing demand at the intensive margin, inducing homeowners to buy larger and more expensive houses. Third, the deduction has sizeable effects on household financial decisions, inducing them to increase indebtedness. Finally, the reduction of the tax subsidy lowered equilibrium house prices. (JEL G21, G51, H24, K34, R21, R31)

Taxation of the fat content of foods for reducing their consumption and preventing obesity or other adverse health outcomes.

BackgroundOverweight and obesity are increasing worldwide and are considered to be a major public health issue of the 21st century. Introducing taxation of the fat content in foods is considered a potentially powerful policy tool to reduce consumption of foods high in fat or saturated fat, or both.ObjectivesTo assess the effects of taxation of the fat content in food on consumption of total fat and saturated fat, energy intake, overweight, obesity, and other adverse health outcomes in the general population.Search methodsWe searched CENTRAL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, Embase, and 15 other databases and trial registers on 12 September 2019. We handsearched the reference lists of all records of included studies, searched websites of international organizations and institutions (14 October 2019), and contacted review advisory group members to identify planned, ongoing, or unpublished studies (26 February 2020).Selection criteriaIn line with Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (EPOC) criteria, we included the following study types: randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cluster‐randomized controlled trials (cRCTs), non‐randomized controlled trials (nRCTs), controlled before‐after (CBA) studies, and interrupted time series studies. We included studies that evaluated the effects of taxes on the fat content in foods. Such a tax could be expressed as sales, excise, or special value added tax (VAT) on the final product or an intermediary product. Eligible interventions were taxation at any level, with no restriction on the duration or the implementation level (i.e. local, regional, national, or multinational). Eligible study populations were children (zero to 17 years) and adults (18 years or older) from any country and setting. We excluded studies that focused on specific subgroups only (e.g. people receiving pharmaceutical intervention; people undergoing a surgical intervention; ill people who are overweight or obese as a side effect, such as those with thyroiditis and depression; and people with chronic illness). Primary outcomes were total fat consumption, consumption of saturated fat, energy intake through fat, energy intake through saturated fat, total energy intake, and incidence/prevalence of overweight or obesity. We did not exclude studies based on country, setting, comparison, or population.Data collection and analysisWe used standard Cochrane methods for all phases of the review. Risk of bias of the included studies was assessed using the criteria of Cochrane’s ‘Risk of bias’ tool and the EPOC Group’s guidance. Results of the review are summarized narratively and the certainty of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. These steps were done by two review authors, independently.Main resultsWe identified 23,281 records from searching electronic databases and 1173 records from other sources, leading to a total of 24,454 records. Two studies met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Both included studies investigated the effect the Danish tax on saturated fat contained in selected food items between 2011 and 2012. Both studies used an interrupted time series design. Neither included study had a parallel control group from another geographic area. The included studies investigated an unbalanced panel of approximately 2000 households in Denmark and the sales data from a specific Danish supermarket chain (1293 stores). Therefore, the included studies did not address individual participants, and no restriction regarding age, sex, and socioeconomic characteristics were defined. We judged the overall risk of bias of the two included studies as unclear.For the outcome total consumption of fat, a reduction of 41.8 grams per week per person in a household (P < 0.001) was estimated. For the consumption of saturated fat, one study reported a reduction of 4.2% from minced beef sales, a reduction of 5.8% from cream sales, and an increase of 0.5% to sour cream sales (no measures of statistical precision were reported for these estimates). These estimates are based on a restricted number of food types and derived from sales data; they do not measure individual intake. Moreover, these estimates do not account for other relevant sources of fat intake (e.g. packaged or processed food) or other food outlets (e.g. restaurants or cafeterias); hence, we judged the evidence on the effect of taxation on total fat consumption or saturated fat consumption to be very uncertain. We did not identify evidence on the effect of the intervention on energy intake or the incidence or prevalence of overweight or obesity.Authors' conclusionsGiven the very low quality of the evidence currently available, we are unable to reliably establish whether a tax on total fat or saturated fat is effective or ineffective in reducing consumption of total fat or saturated fat. There is currently no evidence on the effect of a tax on total fat or saturated fat on total energy intake or energy intake through saturated fat or total fat, or preventing the incidence or reducing the prevalence of overweight or obesity.

Cost comparison and optimization of gas electric hybrid heat pumps

AbstractThe residential heating sector can offer significant load‐shifting possibilities to the energy system. Currently 400,000 households in Denmark are heated by natural gas boilers. The power consumption corresponding to these boilers can offer high value to the stabilization of the wind intensive Danish energy system. Gas electric hybrid heat pumps (GEHHPs) are individual heat pumps consisting of an electric heat pump and a gas boiler. They enable a fully flexible operation of electric heat pumps by supplementing electricity with gas when necessary. In this paper, we construct a cost optimization model of a GEHHP and compare the levelized cost of heat of this system with other individual heating systems. We investigate the changes in the operation schedule of the GEHHP, both from a socio‐ and a private‐economic perspective, and analyze how certain economic and technological framework conditions influence their operation schedule. Our article shows that the end‐consumer's optimal operation schedule uses the gas boiler component of the GEHHP 24% of the time. Additionally, comparing the levelized cost of heat of the GEHHP with other heating alternatives proves that the GEHHP setup is the most cost efficient individual heating alternative.This article is categorized under: Energy Systems Analysis &gt; Economics and Policy Energy Systems Economics &gt; Economics and Policy Energy Systems Economics &gt; Systems and Infrastructure

A tale of two tails: Commuting and the fuel price response in driving

Pricing greenhouse gases is widely understood as the most efficient approach for mitigating climate change, yet distributional effects hamper political acceptance. These distributional effects are especially important in transport, the fastest growing sector for greenhouse gas emissions. Using rich data covering the entire population of vehicles and households in Denmark, this study uncovers an important feature of driving demand: two groups of much more responsive households in the lower and upper tails of the work distance distribution. We further estimate the causal effect of public transport–a critical determinant of the upper tail–and show how public transport access can both reconcile differences in fuel price elasticities between the United States and Europe, and considerably influence the distributional effects of fuel pricing.

The Consumption Effects of the 2007–2008 Financial Crisis: Evidence from Households in Denmark

Did the financial crisis in 2007–2008 spread from distressed banks to households through a contraction of the credit supply? We study this question with a dataset that contains observations on all accounts in Danish banks as well as comprehensive information about individual account holders and banks. We document that banks exposed to the financial crisis reduced their lending relative to nonexposed banks, which in turn caused a significant decrease in the borrowing and spending of their customers. The effects were persistent: borrowing remained lower through the postcrisis years and spending foregone during the crisis was not recovered. (JEL D12, D14, E21, E32, G01, G21)

Households’ hourly electricity consumption and peak demand in Denmark

The electrification of residential energy demand for heating and transportation is expected to increase peak load and require additional generation and transmission capacities. Electrification also provides an opportunity to increase demand response. With a focus on household electricity consumption, we analyse the contribution of appliances and new services, such as individual heat pumps and electric vehicles, to peak consumption and the need for demand response incentives to reduce the peak.Initially, the paper presents a new model that represents the hourly electricity consumption profile of households in Denmark. The model considers hourly consumption profiles for different household appliances and their contribution to annual household electricity consumption. When applying the model to an official scenario for annual electricity consumption, assuming non-flexible consumption due to a considerable introduction of electric vehicles and individual heat pumps, household consumption is expected to increase considerably, especially peak hour consumption is expected to increase.Next the paper presents results from a new experiment where household customers are given economic and/or environmental incentives to shift consumption to or away from specified hours. The experiment focuses on the present classic consumption and shows that household customers do react to incentives, but today the flexibility of the classic consumption is limited. Considering electric vehicles and individual heat pumps, for an individual household, the consumption of each of these technologies roughly doubles the household’s consumption and considerably increases their potential for flexibility. Thus, in order to introduce incentives for demand flexibility, while considering reducing peak consumption, policy makers should initially focus on households that have a heat pump and/or an electric vehicle.

Global warming potential of material fractions occurring in source-separated organic household waste treated by anaerobic digestion or incineration under different framework conditions

This study compared the environmental profiles of anaerobic digestion (AD) and incineration, in relation to global warming potential (GWP), for treating individual material fractions that may occur in source-separated organic household waste (SSOHW). Different framework conditions representative for the European Union member countries were considered. For AD, biogas utilisation with a biogas engine was considered and two potential situations investigated – biogas combustion with (1) combined heat and power production (CHP) and (2) electricity production only. For incineration, four technology options currently available in Europe were covered: (1) an average incinerator with CHP production, (2) an average incinerator with mainly electricity production, (3) an average incinerator with mainly heat production and (4) a state-of-the art incinerator with CHP working at high energy recovery efficiencies. The study was performed using a life cycle assessment in its consequential approach. Furthermore, the role of waste-sorting guidelines (defined by the material fractions allowed for SSOHW) in relation to GWP of treating overall SSOHW with AD was investigated. A case-study of treating 1tonne of SSOHW under framework conditions in Denmark was conducted. Under the given assumptions, vegetable food waste was the only material fraction which was always better for AD compared to incineration. For animal food waste, kitchen tissue, vegetation waste and dirty paper, AD utilisation was better unless it was compared to a highly efficient incinerator. Material fractions such as moulded fibres and dirty cardboard were attractive for AD, albeit only when AD with CHP and incineration with mainly heat production were compared. Animal straw, in contrast, was always better to incinerate. Considering the total amounts of individual material fractions in waste generated within households in Denmark, food waste (both animal and vegetable derived) and kitchen tissue are the main material fractions allowing GWP mitigation with AD when it is compared to incineration. The inclusion of other material fractions in SSOHW sorting guidelines may be considered of less importance.

A Comparison of the Burden of Out‐of‐Pocket Health Payments in Denmark, Germany and Poland

AbstractIt is important to monitor equity of access to health services in all countries. We assessed the levels of out‐of‐pocket (OOP) health spending in three European countries: Denmark, Germany and Poland. Using data from national databases (i.e., Statistics Denmark, German Socio‐Economic Panel, and National Statistical Office of Poland) for the period 2000–2010, we applied common methods to assess the rate of households with ‘catastrophic’ OOP health spending and the concentration of health spending in income‐ordered groups of citizens. 20.3 per cent of Polish households experienced ‘catastrophic’ expenditure defined by OOP health spending/income ratio &gt;10 per cent, compared to 1.0 per cent of households in Germany and 3.2 per cent of households in Denmark. 8.8 per cent of Polish households experienced ‘catastrophic’ expenditure defined by OOP health spending/capacity to pay ratio &gt;40 per cent, compared to 0.4 per cent of households in Germany and 0.8 per cent of households in Denmark. Concentration indexes for OOP on drugs in 2010 were 0.01978 and –0.114 for Denmark and Poland, respectively. The rate of households with ‘catastrophic’ OOP expenditure in Poland is much higher than in both Denmark and Germany; health spending in Poland is concentrated among the worst‐off groups of citizens while in Denmark and Germany they are distributed more equitably.

Modeling and optimization of a heat-pump-assisted high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell micro-combined-heat-and-power system for residential applications

Abstract In this study a micro-combined-heat-and-power (micro-CHP) system is coupled to a vapor-compression heat pump to fulfill the residential needs for heating (space heating and water heating) and electricity in detached single-family households in Denmark. Such a combination is assumed to be attractive for application, since both fuel cell technology and electric heat pumps are found to be two of the most efficient technologies for generation/conversion of useful energy. The micro-CHP system is fueled with natural gas and includes a fuel cell stack, a fuel processor and other auxiliary components. The micro-CHP system assumes heat-led operation, to avoid dumping of heat and the use of complicated thermal energy storage. The overall system is grid-interconnected to allow importing and exporting of electricity as necessary. In this study emphasis is given on the operational characterization of the system. The variational loads are considered from full to quarter load, and the micro-CHP system is optimized in terms of operating thermophysical parameters for every different load. The results clearly indicate the capability of the proposed system to perform efficiently throughout all necessary load changes to fulfill the residential load profile. The average net electrical efficiency and average total system efficiency are 0.380 and 0.815, respectively. However cost analysis shows that certain synergies are necessary to allow the proposed system to make an entry to the energy market as a possible candidate to replace heat pump-only equipped households.

Soukromý a veřejný dluh

We analyse potential sources of internal imbalances, specifically as regards private and public indebtedness. The combination of a high public debt and increasing private sector indebtedness have been a source of concern in the perspective of the funding of the economy in examined countries. We utilize the detailed financial accounts as an analytical framework for revealing the development of private sector 's indebtedness in 18 EU countries in the period 1995-2012. Ratio of private debt (non-financial corporations, households and non-profit institutions serving households) to GDP was steadily increasing till 2009 with a decrease in the following years. After the decomposition of the private sector debt several facts stand out. Highly indebted, on the average, are households in Denmark and The Netherlands. Postsocialist countries have still low indebtedness, but are catching up. In panel regressions (fixed effects) the dependent variable is overlapping two-and free-year forward looking averages. The control variables are those usually used in growth equations a la R. Barro. We have utilised also instrumental variables (Pooled IV Two-stage EGLS) and 3 years averages for all variables to capture medium-run impacts. Having analysed the impacts of different private debt variables on the growth rate of real GDP we assert that the impact has been negative and statistically significant in almost all growth regressions.

Examining the impact of alternative power measures on individual time use in American and Danish couple households

We exploit time diary data for couple households in Denmark and the United States to examine the impact alternative measures of intrahousehold bargaining power have upon different measures of individual time use. Power measures have traditionally been based on current earnings, but earnings are determined by past/present time use decisions and hence potentially endogenous. More powerful individuals have been hypothesized to spend less time on housework, however, housework time also depends upon relative preferences for home produced goods and relative productivity in home production. Gendered notions of time use and censored earnings and time data also pose problems. We propose examining leisure time and exploring alternative measures of power less prone to endogeneity bias in order to address these theoretical and empirical concerns. Our results indicate that leisure time is more consistently and significantly associated with ‘power’ than housework time and that education share performs quite well as a measure of power. These results are particularly strong on non-work days and in the United States.

Discovering market opportunities for future CDM projects in Asia based on biomass combined heat and power production and supply of district heating

Highly-efficient and renewable energy technologies in Asia are required in the future, in order to supply the amounts of energy needed in the growing economies and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Combined heat and power (CHP) from biomass with supply of district heating (hot water) to households in Denmark makes the Danish energy sector one of the most efficient in the world. Efficient biomass-fuelled CHP technologies adopted in the North can be implemented in Asian countries with substantial environmental benefits. This article analyses opportunities for setting up such efficient energy supply systems in hot Asian countries, which lack heat demand in their households. The article identifies alternative “heat markets” by exploring opportunities for efficient supply of district heating to the industrial sector. Through a case-study conducted in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand, the article shows how this can be established technically, and be financially supported in practice through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The article further analyses options for local manufacturing of CHP technologies, etc., in countries in the South (exemplified by Thailand), to support the implementation of biomass-based CHP with supply of district heating in the future energy supply of Asia.

Having the Wrong Kind of Money. a Qualitative Analysis of New Forms of Financial, Social and Moral Exclusion in Consumerist Scandinavia

Consumerism not only promotes discourses emphasizing individualized consumer choices, but it also introduces new electronic, invisible and symbolic forms of money. The present article analyses social exclusion in contemporary Scandinavian society by focusing on patterns of consumption and the social meaning of money in low-income households in Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on recent sociological theory on money and budgeting ( Pahl, 1999 , 2002 ; Singh, 1997 , 1999 ; Zelizer, 1997 , 2005 ) and recent critiques of consumption studies (Edgell, Hetherington and Warde 1996; Gronow and Warde, 2001; Lodziak, 2002 ), it argues that experiences of social and financial exclusion in consumerist society must be related to the amount of money available within the household, the social position that the household occupies, and the social form that this money takes. Pahl (1999) shows that the development of electronic money seems to alter and further constrain access to consumption for the ‘credit poor’ and ‘information poor’. To this ‘technological filter’, a ‘social filter’ may be added, as the results suggest that consumption patterns and the social meaning of money in low-income families are largely incompatible with prevailing neo-liberalist ideas of money and consumption in contemporary society.