Electricity Supply Preferences in Europe: Evidence from Subjective Well-Being Data

Heinz Welsch and Philipp Biermann

No V-359-13, Working Papers from University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use survey data for 139,517 individuals in 26 European Countries, 2002-2011, to estimate the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and production shares of various types of electricity generation. The estimated relationships are taken to represent preference relationships over attributes of electricity supply systems (costs, safety, environmental friendliness etc.). Controlling for a variety of individual and macro-level factors, we find that individuals’ SWB varies systematically and significantly with differences in the electricity mix across countries and across time. Among other results, we find that a greater share of solar and wind power relative to nuclear power is associated with greater SWB and that the implied preference for solar and wind power over nuclear power has risen drastically after the Fukushima nuclear accident. In general, our results suggest that environmental and safety concerns are of major importance in European citizens’ preference function over electricity supply structures.

Keywords: : energy mix; preference; subjective well-being; energy transition; Fukushima (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 Q42 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2013-08, Revised 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-eur, nep-hap and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Oldenburg Working Papers V-359-13

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http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ ... ete/vwl/V-359-13.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Electricity supply preferences in Europe: Evidence from subjective well-being data (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:old:dpaper:359

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