conceptualising energy use and energy poverty using a capabilities framework in this article we conceptualise energy use from a capabilities perspective informed by the work of amartya sen martha nussbaum and others following them building on this we suggest a corresponding definition of energy poverty as understood in the capabilities space we argue that such an understanding provides a theoretically coherent means of comprehending the relationship between energy and wellbeing and thus conceptualising energy deprivation that makes sense across settings including both the global north and south a coherence which has previously been lacking at the same time it has the flexibility to be deployed in a way that is sensitive to local contexts understanding energy use in the capabilities space also provides a means for identifying multiple sites of intervention including some areas that are currently largely overlooked we argue that this is advantageous for attempts to address energy poverty in the context of climate change and imperatives for the containment of aggregate energy consumption

housing conditions and their structural determinants comparisons within the enlarged eu housing conditions vary widely across the eu and the fact that new member states are lagging behind in this regard has even come onto the european policy agenda this article examines housing conditions as an outcome of complex social developments and highlights specific reasons why housing conditions vary so much within the eu thus the specific impact is observed of factors which have been identified in the literature as characterising distinctive housing models the eastern european housing model the southern european housing model and the distinction between cost renting and homeowning countries further the impact of these factors along with general socioeconomic development is empirically assessed by a linear regression model based on the eqls 2003 dataset the results clearly support the thesis of economic development playing a decisive role with it being the biggest single factor explaining variations in housing conditions across the eu followed by the significant influence of policy choice

does energy poverty really exist in china from the perspective of residential electricity consumption abstract china is undergoing a market oriented reform in energy and the residential sector will be involved in the near future the analysis of energy poverty is crucial in breaking the illusion of the dilemma between enhancing energy efficiency and controlling poverty based on chinese residential energy consumption survey we firstly estimated the energy poverty in china by the 10 indicator and lihc indicators and then proposed a minimum end use method to classify the energy poor households into lifeline and consumption energy poverty results show that energy poverty exists in china at the proportion of 18 9 and 46 of the energy poor houses are in short of modern energy consumption and are sensitive to tariffs with a level of electricity consumption lower than the basic demand the energy poverty rate is highest in central china while the lifeline energy poor are relatively concentrated in the western region in terms of public policy we suggest focusing on heterogeneity by considering different groups of households when implementing energy efficiency measures and targeting more on the consumption energy poor in poverty alleviation we also suggest paying particular attention to targeting households with low income by supporting practices such as coupons for energy consumption and appliance purchasing

state of the irish housing stock modelling the heat losses of ireland s existing detached rural housing stock estimating the benefit of thermal retrofit measures on this stock ireland s housing stock has been identified as being amongst the least energy efficient in northern europe consequently atmospheric emissions are greater than necessary government funded schemes have been introduced to incentivise the uptake of thermal retrofit measures in the domestic irish market a study of ireland s housing highlights the dominance of detached houses 43 72 of which are rurally located and are predominantly heated with fuel oil this paper investigates the economic and carbon case for thermal retrofit measures to the existing detached oil centrally heated rural housing stock the study found the case for energy efficiency measures to be categorical and supports the irish government s focus on energy efficiency policy measures thermal retrofit measures in the detached housing stock have the potential to realise an averaged 65 theoretical reduction in heating costs and co2 emissions for houses constructed prior to 1979 coinciding with the introduction of building regulations and around 26 for newer homes thus offering a significant contribution 44 to ireland s residential carbon abatement projections and hence in meeting the eu s directives on energy and carbon the greatest savings 36 of ireland s carbon abatement projections result from improving the energy efficiency of the pre 1979 stock

building synergies between climate change mitigation and energy poverty alleviation abstract even though energy poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation are inextricably linked policy goals they have remained as relatively disconnected fields of research inquiry and policy development acknowledging this gap this paper explores the mainstream academic and policy literatures to provide a taxonomy of interactions and identify synergies and trade offs between them the most important trade off identified is the potential increase in energy poverty levels as a result of strong climate change action if the internalisation of the external costs of carbon emissions is not offset by efficiency gains the most significant synergy was found in deep energy efficiency in buildings the paper argues that neither of the two problems deep reductions in ghg emissions by mid century and energy poverty eradication is likely to be solved fully on their own merit while joining the two policy goals may provide a very solid case for deep efficiency improvements thus the paper calls for a strong integration of these two policy goals plus other key related benefits like energy security or employment in order to provide sufficient policy motivation to mobilise a wide scale implementation of deep energy efficiency standards

fuel poverty in the uk is there a difference between rural and urban areas abstract fuel poverty is a significant policy issue an argument often made is that rural households are more likely to be fuel poor due to the nature of rural housing stock and the more limited choice of energy sources in rural areas this paper uses panel data to compare the level and dynamics of fuel poverty in rural and urban areas of the uk in addition to descriptive analysis discrete hazard models of fuel poverty exit and re entry are estimated and used to assess the influence of housing and personal characteristics on the time spent in fuel poverty the results indicate that on average the experience of fuel poverty in urban areas is longer with a higher probability of fuel poverty persistence however on average the rural fuel poor appear more vulnerable to energy price increases while living in private accommodation or a flat increases their probability of remaining fuel poor relative to their urban counterparts these results indicate policy effectiveness may differ across rural and urban space however they also emphasise the limits of spatial targeting monitoring the dynamics of fuel poverty is important for ensuring that policy targets are effective and reaching those most in need

energy poverty in china an index based comprehensive evaluation abstract energy poverty has got increasing attention during the latest three decades measuring energy poverty is the premise of policy making to alleviate energy poverty there is no unified energy poverty measurement that has been widely accepted this paper reviews the commonly used energy poverty measurements through classifying them into three categories energy service availability energy service quality and satisfaction of energy demand for human s survival and development this paper also analyzes the suitability of the commonly used energy poverty measurement for china from the prospective of data availability and index applicability furthermore we construct a new energy poverty comprehensive evaluation index in this study and the index is illustrated to evaluate regional energy poverty in china the evaluation results indicate that china s energy poverty showed an alleviating trend from 2000 to 2011 and during this period china s energy service availability improved slightly energy consumption cleanliness showed no significant change energy management completeness decreased with fluctuations and household energy affordability and energy efficiency improved continually in addition china s regions show different characteristics of energy poverty for example middle reaches of yangtze river region showed the worst energy availability and eastern coastal region showed the worst energy management completeness several policy implications for energy poverty alleviation are also proposed in this study including for instance increasing investment on energy infrastructure and spreading energy management organization in rural area decreasing relative cost on household commercial energy consumption and encourage the utilization of modern clean and efficient household energy consumption equipment

exposure and risk to fuel poverty in france examining the extent of the fuel precariousness and its salient determinants abstract millions of households experience fuel poverty around the world commonly defined in broad terms in the early 1990s to cover households whose total energy bills exceeded 10 of their net income first this paper outlines the measurement of fuel poverty using the low income high costs indicator lihc and examines the main characteristics of fuel poor households in france based on multidimensional statistical analysis using a new micro level survey data it then explores the salient determinants of fuel poverty risk using logistic regression about 3 18 million households are estimated to be in fuel poverty representing 12 of all french households the hierarchical classification suggested four distinct profiles which shed light on the main features of fuel poor households additionally results show that the risk of being fuel poor and the depth of fuel poverty increase significantly with lower epc rating house and confirm the existence of a social gradient in fuel poverty recognition of this aspect can be helpful for developing economically efficient policies to address fuel poverty this study does not aim to be exhaustive in policy implications terms but rather to present a new way of thinking about fuel poverty solutions by targeting different household groups

housing wealth and residential energy consumption abstract the housing wealth effect often manifests as a positive relationship between consumption and perceived housing wealth e g the perceived value of houses when the perceived value of a property rises homeowners may feel more comfortable and secure about their wealth causing them to spend more this study adopts a behavioural approach to verify if this relationship holds true for residential energy consumption in the uk while controlling for property characteristics and a large number of demographic socioeconomic and energy use behaviour variables we identified a significant relationship between housing wealth and energy consumption our models also considered psychological biases in energy consumption behaviours such as the framing effect our findings shed light on the behavioural aspects of housing wealth effect on residential energy consumption and demonstrate the potential to nudge households towards energy conservation most importantly we provide empirical evidence on the intriguing relationship among housing wealth residential energy consumption and fuel poverty the findings of this study are particularly helpful in designing and implementing energy consumption policies that can strike a balance between social justice and economic efficiency

quantifying the severity of fuel poverty its relationship with poor housing and reasons for non investment in energy saving measures in ireland fuel poverty has generally been calculated by quantifying the number of households spending in excess of 10 of income on home heating this definition has a number of significant practical and scientific limitations this paper employs self reported data to calculate the severity of fuel poverty in ireland to identify chronic fuel poor households from occasional sufferers it also assesses domestic energy efficiency levels ireland is a useful case study as it demonstrates the highest variations in seasonal mortality and morbidity in northern europe both of which are associated with fuel poverty ireland is also experiencing extreme difficulties meeting its environmental emissions targets in light of recent spectacular economic growth reducing fuel poverty would lower energy related emissions assisting policy makers achieve these challenging targets furthermore little empirical research has been undertaken on fuel poverty in ireland this paper identifies key social groups at risk by conducting detailed socio economic and socio demographic analyses the relationship between fuel poverty and adverse housing conditions damp condensation is also examined moreover the reasons behind householders not investing in energy saving measures are reported the results show that ireland suffers from similar levels of fuel poverty as the uk with low income households suffering the greatest the key policy implications are outlined

spatializing energy justice this paper introduces the concept of spatial justice and inequality to understandings of energy poverty and vulnerability by applying an explicitly spatial lens to conceptualize energy poverty as a form of injustice it contributes to debates in the domain of energy justice where previous examinations of energy deprivation through a justice framing have focused on inequalities between social groups and often marginalized questions of spatial difference we start from the premise that geographic disparities in the risk and incidence of domestic energy deprivation are a key component of energy justice an extensive literature review has allowed us to highlight the spatial and temporal variation of cross sectoral and entire energy chain injustices that lead to elevated energy poverty risks these processes contribute to the rise of energy injustices via four mechanisms which we term landscapes of material deprivation geographic underpinnings of energy affordability vicious cycles of vulnerability and spaces of misrecognition operating at a multiplicity of scales while lending some support to area based approaches towards energy poverty alleviation our findings also suggest that such policies alone may marginalize the underlying structural dynamics that re produce spatial inequalities therefore achieving energy justice necessitates broader interventions in the fundamental driving forces of spatial inequality

equity and bond flows to latin america and asia the role of global and country factors abstract this paper investigates the factors motivating the large capital flows to a number of developing countries in recent years we use monthly us capital flows to nine latin american and nine asian countries to analyze the behavior of bond and equity flows employing a panel data approach we find that although global factors the drop in us interest rates and the slowdown in us industrial production are important in explaining capital inflows country specific developments are at least as important especially for asia we also find that equity flows are more sensitive than bond flows to global factors but that bond flows are generally more sensitive to a country s credit rating and secondary market debt price

does france have a fuel poverty trap abstract in this article we focus on fuel poverty dynamics by answering two questions does france have a fuel poverty trap and what are the determinants of staying in or moving out of fuel poverty first we define three states into which individuals may be placed which are as follows the non fuel poverty state the fuel poverty state and the severe fuel poverty state second we use a mover stayer model that divides the population into the following two types of individuals those who remain in the same state during the observation period the stayers and those who move across states the movers this model applies to longitudinal data from mainland france showing that fuel poverty is not an absorbing state indeed a majority of the fuel poor and the severely fuel poor move to another better state therefore we can argue that france has no fuel poverty trap using two econometric models logit and multinomial logit we identify the stability and mobility determinants in different states as expected there is a relationship between income and the likelihood of an individual remaining in a particular state furthermore poor housing implies a greater likelihood of stability in fuel poverty or severe fuel poverty another result is that deterioration in fuel poverty status seems to stem more from difficult financial situations than from bad dwelling conditions

domestic energy efficiency in ireland correcting market failure if the bene ts of domestic energy e ciency are so great why are they not reaped in actuality and what can be done about it this paper deals with these crucial questions it is based on the ndings of a recent comprehensive study evaluating the costs labour and materials and bene ts energy cost savings environmental bene ts including reductions in emissions of co 2 n o x s o 2 and pm 10 comfort gains and mortality and morbidity impacts to irish society of bringing the entire housing stock up to the latest building regulations the reasons for the lack of take up of energy conservation measures are discussed the paper formulates policy proposals to address the impediments to e ective action in the market for domestic energy e ciency the various policy instruments available to overcome these barriers are outlined past performance citing speci c exemplars both from abroad and from experience in ireland is reported the nal section suggests a mix of policy instruments to assist the realisation of the potential bene ts of the energy conservation programme the principal initiatives recommended include the provision of a combination of grants to low income households and a clear state led information campaign explaining the bene ts of conserving energy to the householder 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

in the margin of the welfare state labour market position and housing conditions of undocumented immigrants in rotterdam undocumented immigrants form a substantial share of minority populations data on the city of rotterdam show that the fate of undocumented immigrants to a large degree is dependent on established migrant communities differences between migrant communities in terms of numbers and access to social housing seem to have significant effects on the position of undocumented immigrants with the same ethnic or national background undocumented immigrants both feed on and contribute to migrant communities in terms of housing opportunity and segregation in the age of migration any serious study of migrant communities has to take into account the presence and social position of undocumented immigrants

on the power of indicators how the choice of fuel poverty indicator affects the identification of the target population in light of the creation of the eu energy poverty observatory epov in january 2018 and the increase in debates on how fuel poverty is measured we propose a critical analysis of fuel poverty indi

real estate regulations in accra some macroeconomic consequences ghana has been one of the most rapidly growing economies in sub saharan africa this growth has been aided by ghana s improving policy environment in light of this the paper addresses the question of why given its higher level of per capita income and relatively strong growth the housing conditions of the poor in accra are considerably worse than those in a number of other african cities with lower incomes there are not many data available to answer this question so the method is indirect and takes two approaches first a variant of the monocentric city model is used to calculate accra s housing supply elasticity relative to those of other similarly sized african cities the model suggests that housing supply responsiveness is considerably lower in accra a result consistent with the observed higher housing costs secondly a number of traditional housing demand and reduced form equations are estimated for accra and the other cities this allows the formation of a quantitative judgment about accra

building energy efficiency a research branch made of paradoxes abstract the literature dealing with building energy efficiency has long since debated about the possible occurrence of the so called jevons paradox in a nutshell benefiting from energy savings due to transition to high performance buildings may the same savings cause a kind of rebound effect by acting as an incentive to increase consumptions on closer inspection this is not the only paradox affecting the research branch that focuses on the energy used by the buildings and the building industry a second paradox is that investments in energy efficient solutions may contribute to energy price control which in turn lends itself to make the same investments not profitable a third paradox lies in the need to adopt energy intensive materials in order to achieve substantial energy savings in operation hence sometimes we just substitute a certain amount of operating energy with a more or less commensurate amount of embodied energy here we argue that the joint consideration of the paradoxes mentioned above should not be neglected since it brings with itself several implications needing to be disentangled whether we aim to get further enhancements in this disciplinary field

subjective versus objective energy burden a look at drivers of different metrics and regional variation of energy poor populations abstract energy poverty is typically assessed using the energy expenditure to income ratio as a metric this metric fails to account though for residents demographics and regional variation in energy consumption in the united states policymakers dealing with energy poverty have faced challenges estimating the needs for energy assistance programs this study seeks to explore regional variations in energy poverty using texas as the region of study this work also explores differences in the populations captured via objective and subjective metrics i e those who are unable to pay their bill and those who state they struggle to do so drawing on survey data this work uses statistical analyses to 1 assess the regional variation of energy poverty defined as a ratio of household income spent on electricity bills 2 determine if there is an association between objective and subjective metrics of energy poverty and 3 identify statistical drivers of objective and subjective energy poverty metrics of respondents 51 of objectively energy burdened individuals indicated they struggled to pay electricity bills and 53 faced great stress due to the electricity bill if policymakers can use metrics that are more accurate in capturing populations facing energy poverty more effective energy poverty policies might be formulated

a new database on the structure and development of the financial sector this article introduces a new database of indicators of financial structure and financial development across countries and over time the database is unique in that it combines a wide variety of indicators that measure the size activity and efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets it improves on previous efforts by presenting data on the public share of commercial banks introducing indicators of the size and activity of nonbank financial institutions and constructing measures of the size of bond and primary equity markets this article introduces a new database the first to provide comprehensive measures of the development structure and performance of the financial sector this database is the first to define and construct indicators of the size and activity of nonbank financial intermediaries such as insurance companies pension funds and non deposit money banks it is also the first to include indicators of the size of primary equity markets and primary and secondary bond markets in constructing the database authors carefully deflate measures and match stock and flow variables

effect of fuelwood scarcity and socio economic factors on household bio based energy use and energy substitution in rural ethiopia abstract in ethiopia biomass is predominantly utilized for household energy needs often using inefficient rudimentary stoves which cause adverse environmental and welfare effects this paper examined the contribution of biomass resources to rural household energy use and energy substitution the analysis applied the ordinary least square in the final stage estimation of fuelwood and overall biomass energy consumption by using predicted shadow prices the paper used tobit model to estimate charcoal and agricultural fuel consumption due to the presence of censoring an increase in fuelwood shadow price was associated with reduced household fuelwood consumption with price elasticity of 0 38 the cross price elasticity between fuelwood and agricultural fuels revealed no evidence of energy substitution which conforms to the findings of previous studies household access to electricity was associated with lower household biomass energy utilization but kerosene was not fuelwood substitute household energy use conformed to the fuel stacking or multiple fuel use concept but households preferred modern energy options as welfare increased in areas where modern energy is available this suggests that there is a promising prospect for fuel transition but access to modern energy and economic growth have key roles the findings suggest that a concerted policy effort is required that would help diversify rural livelihoods improve living standards and encourage economic growth encourage inter fuel substitution through improved modern energy access and afforestation to increase biomass supply

self fulfilling risk panics abstract recent crises have seen large spikes in asset price risk we propose an explanation for such panics based on self fulfilling shifts in beliefs about risk a negative link between the curre

the pecking order of cross border investment abstract is there a pecking order of cross border investment in that countries become financially integrated through some types of investment rather than others using a novel database of bilateral capital stocks for all types of investment fdi portfolio equity securities debt securities as well as loans for a broad set of 77 countries we show that such a pecking order indeed exists the paper focuses on two key determinants of this pecking order information frictions and the quality of host country institutions overall we find that in particular fdi and to some extent also loans are substantially more sensitive to information frictions than investment in portfolio equity and debt securities we also show that the share as well as the size of fdi that a country receive are largely insensitive to institutional factors in host countries while portfolio investment is by far the most sensitive to the quality of institutions this provides new evidence in favor of some hypotheses but contradicts others put forward in the literature on trade in financial assets

energy poor or fuel poor what are the differences abstract energy poverty and fuel poverty are descriptors of problems of households energy consumption they are both distinct problems and have been addressed by many researchers organizations and governments cross use of the terms of energy poverty and fuel poverty in published papers is common as an accurate descriptor is the presupposition of research and policy development especially for those who just started to pay attention to this issue this paper compares the definitions research priorities status quo and problems of these two concepts and summarizes the relationship between them the paper suggests that only when the research targets are households who are living in a cold climate and have difficulty in getting access to electricity or modern cooking facilities and in supplying indoor heating with appropriate cost the concepts of energy poverty and fuel poverty have the chance to be broadened and mutually integrated

globalisation and housing finance systems in advanced and transition economies globalisation is only the most recent manifestation of convergence theory this article shows how distinctive housing finance systems in the advanced economies contribute to distinctive housing systems with important social and economic implications it also suggests that the evidence from the european union confirms what can be derived from a priori reasoning that mobility of finance does not alter the nationally based components of the wider housing finance system hence even huge changes in the nature of intermediaries fail to alter the fundamental nature of the mortgage product combined with lack of any evidence to suggest that government support for home ownership is in general or irreversible retreat it is suggested that the former socialist transition countries have considerably more opportunity to shape their housing finance systems than might be suggested by convergence theory

the distributional implications of a carbon tax in ireland we study the effects of carbon tax and revenue recycling across the income distribution in the republic of ireland in absolute terms a carbon tax of 20 tco2 would cost the poorest households less than 3 week and the richest households more than 4 week a carbon tax is regressive therefore however if the tax revenue is used to increase social benefits and tax credits households across the income distribution can be made better off without exhausting the total carbon tax revenue

contagion and trade why are currency crises regional abstract currency crises tend to be regional they affect countries in geographic proximity this suggests that patterns of international trade are important in understanding how currency crises spread above and beyond any macroeconomic phenomena we provide empirical support for this hypothesis using data for five different currency crises in 1971 1973 1992 1994 and 1997 we show that currency crises affect clusters of countries tied together by international trade by way of contrast macroeconomic and financial influences are not closely associated with the cross country incidence of speculative attacks

facade insulation retrofitting policy implementation process and its effects on health equity determinants a realist review abstract fuel poverty and cold housing constitute a significant public health problem energy efficiency interventions such as facade retrofitting address the problem from a structural and long term perspective despite evidence of the health benefits of insulation little is known about the political and social contexts that contribute to social inequalities in receiving and experiencing health benefits from these interventions we used a realist review methodology to better understand the mechanisms that explain how and why variations across different social groups appear in receiving energy efficiency facade retrofitting interventions and in their impact on health determinants we considered the four stages of the policy implementation framework public policy approach policy receiving intervention and impact on health determinants we found strong evidence that certain social groups low income renters elderly suffering most from fuel poverty experience more barriers for undertaking a building retrofitting due to factors such as upfront costs presentism thinking split incentives disruption and lack of control and that some public policies on housing energy efficiency may exacerbate these inequalities this can be avoided if such policies specifically aim at tackling fuel poverty or social inequities are completely free to users target the most affected groups and are adapted to their needs

the great retrenchment international capital flows during the global financial crisis the current crisis saw an unprecedented collapse in international capital flows after years of rising financial globalization we identify the stylized facts and main drivers of this development the retrenchment in international capital flows is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon first across time being especially dramatic in the wake of the lehman brothers failure secondly across types of flows with banking flows being the hardest hit due to their sensitivity of risk perception and thirdly across regions with emerging economies experiencing a shorter lived retrenchment than developed economies our econometric analysis shows that the magnitude of the retrenchment in capital flows across countries is linked to the extent of international financial integration its specific nature with countries relying on bank flows being the hardest hit as well as domestic macroeconomic conditions and their connection to world trade flows gian maria milesi ferretti and cedric tille

when in peril retrench testing the portfolio channel of contagion abstract the impact of past gains and losses on international investors risk aversion is an important factor in the propagation of financial shocks across countries we first present a stylized model illustrating how changes in investors risk aversion affect portfolio decisions and stock prices we then examine empirically the behavior of international mutual funds when funds returns are below average they reduce their exposure to countries in which they were overweight and vice versa an index of financial interdependence that reflects the extent to which countries share overexposed funds helps explain the pattern of stock market comovement across countries and the pattern of contagion during crises

the policy implications of energy poverty indicators abstract the methodologies and indicators that have been proposed in the literature to measure energy poverty are quite diverse some are subjective approaches based on personal or third parties perceptions of affordable warmth at home whereas others calculate objective indicators although these different proposals have already been theoretically compared an empirical comparative analysis that measures in a real case study the practical impact of the theoretical limitations detected for the different indicators was still pending the goal of this paper is thus to contribute to this debate by comparing critically the different approaches used to measure energy poverty in a real case spain in 2015 and to propose a new methodology that might be able to overcome some of the major problems that affect current methods

fdi debt and capital controls abstract we examine the link between financial sector fdi flows banking debt flows and capital controls in emerging market economies during episodes of large gross capital inflows surges we find that fdi surges in the financial sector behave remarkably similar to surges in banking debt flows they are associated with boom bust cycles in gdp and expansions of credit in foreign currency unlike surges in fdi in the non financial sectors moreover global and contagion factors have a strong explanatory power in explaining surges in financial fdi and banking debt flows compared to surges in non financial sectors but capital controls have the opposite effect on the two types of flows restrictions on short term debt flows tend to decrease the likelihood of surges in banking debt flows but increase the likelihood of surges in financial sector fdi

contrasting approaches to fuel poverty in new zealand we contrast two measures of fuel poverty in new zealand the first is based on estimated expenditure of over 10 of household income on fuel the second is self reported deprivation of fuel because of an inability to afford it households denoted as fuel poor on the two measures are mostly different and the findings suggest that research is needed to investigate if different households make different trade offs between expenditure on fuel and other necessities

an integrated economic and distributional analysis of energy policies most public policies particularly those in the energy sphere have not only efficiency but also distributional effects however there is a trade off between modelling approaches suitable for calculating those impacts on the economy for the former most of the studies have been conducted with general equilibrium models whereas partial equilibrium models represent the main approach for distributional analysis this paper proposes a methodology to simultaneously carry out an analysis of the distributional and efficiency consequences of changes in energy taxation in order to do so we have integrated a microeconomic household demand model and a computable general equilibrium model for the spanish economy we illustrate the advantages of this approach by simulating a revenue neutral reform in spanish indirect taxation with a large increase of energy taxes that serve an environmental purpose the results show that the reforms bring about significant efficiency and distributional effects in some cases counterintuitive and demonstrate the academic and social utility of this approximation

the challenge to uk energy policy an ageing population perspective on energy saving measures and consumption abstract with a focus on the residential sector this paper explores the likelihood of the uk government meeting its energy targets the paper contends that energy policy needs to take into account the interplay of four major factors an ageing population of increasing diversity a cultural inclination for older housing much of which is thermally inefficient levels of fuel poverty and the inexorable rise of consumer spending on leisure related services and goods decisions made by older households both the poorer and the better off may be critical to the success of energy policy among the better off the changing expectations of the baby boomers with their predilection for consumption and travel may have particular impact the paper concludes that much of the reduction in carbon footprint made by older people s choices in heating and insulation may be offset not only by increasing domestic thermal comfort but also potentially by increasing consumables in the home and other consumer lifestyle choices what could be achieved at best may be a shift in energy mix

an empirical investigation into students experience of fuel poverty abstract the trend of expansion in higher education in the uk since 1992 has created a massive demand for accommodation for students where the housing stock is one of the oldest and least efficient in europe and the private rented sector is often singled out for containing some of the least energy efficient and in worst condition properties the extent to which students factor in energy efficiency and fuel poverty concerns into their accommodation choices is explored in this paper along with the perception of the phenomena by students from a survey of 286 students it was revealed that while students themselves may not consider themselves to be living in fuel poverty the activities taken in their day to day lives suggest the opposite the impact of the housing stock on student quality of life is investigated as well

a multidimensional measure of energy poverty in china and its impacts on health an empirical study based on the china family panel studies abstract inability or insufficient access to modern forms of energy is an important issue in development which makes the notion of energy poverty a widely discussed topic a consensus has been reached that energy poverty has serious health education and other socio economic impacts for people in a country however measurements of energy poverty have generally been absent or inaccurate especially for developing countries at the micro level this paper begins with the multidimensional nature of energy poverty and uses household level survey data in china to construct a quantitative measure of energy poverty covering both affordability of and accessibility to a broad range of forms of energy it then builds an econometric model to address empirically how much energy poverty affects health a statistically significant and robust negative impact on health from energy poverty is confirmed our results have important policy relevance in terms of understanding the current status quo of energy poverty in china and its consequences the concept can also be expanded to investigate similar issues in other developing countries

measurement of spatial socioeconomic impact of energy poverty abstract this article presents a spatial analysis of the evolution of energy poverty in spanish households and aims to measure the socioeconomic impact of energy poverty the economic financial measurement of palliative measures implemented and social perceptions of energy poverty are also dimensioned in order to analyse holistically the economic financial and social impact of energy poverty at a territorial level a statistical analysis of the financial aids has been conducted and the perception of technicians employed by both the public and the private sectors who work with affected households has been compiled in addition this paper explores the relationship between media coverage and the economic financial impact at territorial level to this goal 259 newspaper articles about energy poverty were classified and analysed to examine the socio genesis of the problem of energy poverty the measurement of the socio economics impact of energy poverty in households in a territory represents the spatial dimension of the problem for the definition of local energy policies taking into consideration the evolution of different measures implemented over time their limitations scope and flexibility