The Significance of the Financial Situation of Local Government Units for Their Energy Transition Activities: The Case of the Podkarpackie Region

Ryszard Kata, Magdalena Cyrek and Małgorzata Wosiek ()
Additional contact information
Ryszard Kata: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Rzeszow, Cwiklinskiej 2, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland
Magdalena Cyrek: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Rzeszow, Cwiklinskiej 2, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland
Małgorzata Wosiek: Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Rzeszow, Cwiklinskiej 2, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: This paper discusses the financial determinants of the efforts of local government units (LGUs) to invest in the area of energy transition (ET). The main objective is to verify the links between the scale, directions, and funding sources of LGUs’ investments in ET and their budgetary situation described by the level of income independence, budget result, and debt level. The general research hypothesis assumes that the ET investment activity of LGUs is associated with their financial situation. The analysis covers the period 2019–2022 and uses data from the questionnaire-based survey conducted in 2023 among 181 LGUs in the Podkarpackie region in southern Poland. Non-parametric tests were employed to verify the association between the LGUs’ ET investment activity and their financial situation: the Chi 2 test, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and the Kendall’s Tau correlation. Financial aspects were shown to influence the scale of municipal ET investments, as well as the type of projects implemented. Among the analysed financial indicators, the debt level was the most important constraint for LGUs to make their own ET investments. The debt level not only determined the scale of municipal ET investment, but also influenced decisions on the type of investments.

Keywords: energy transition; local government units; budgetary situation; municipal investment; financial constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/11/2761/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/11/2761/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:11:p:2761-:d:1409026

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().