Understanding energy poverty drivers in Europe

Nidhaleddine Ben Cheikh, Younes Ben Zaied and Duc Khuong Nguyen

Energy Policy, 2023, vol. 183, issue C

Abstract: This paper tackles the issue of energy poverty in an attempt to identify the key factors that would enhance the affordability of energy services. We implement a set of recent panel data techniques which enable us to capture the presence of regime shifts and time-varying relationships between energy poverty and its main drivers. Using annual data from 25 European countries over the period 2006–2019, we point out the prominent role of income level and energy price in determining access to adequate and affordable energy. This outcome depends on the degree of income inequality, the energy efficiency, and the energy transition underway. Better income distribution among households and efficient use of energy resources would alleviate energy poverty. Nevertheless, policymakers would have to pay more attention to the cost of energy transition to not worsen household access to energy services.

Keywords: Energy poverty; Income; Moderating effect; Nonlinear panel data models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 I32 Q43 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523004032
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:183:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523004032

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113818

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().