cambodia s energy poverty and its effects on social wellbeing empirical evidence and policy implications abstract this study aims to quantify the incidence of energy poverty in cambodia and its potential impact on the social wellbeing of the people of cambodia the notion of energy poverty of a household is not well understood in the context of literature as it may refer to either energy poor or economically poor condition of the household this study defines energy poverty in terms of lack of accessibility and or affordability of energy which may cause the deprivation of a household and affect its wellbeing the study uses the latest cambodia socio economic survey data 2015 cses 2015 to investigate the impacts of energy poverty on the health education and earning opportunities of the households the findings of the study suggest that energy poverty of a household is strongly associated with the type of fuel used and low consumption of unaffordable clean energy by the household the resulting impacts of energy poverty on the wellbeing of households are enormous energy poor households have a higher probability of its members suffering from respiratory problems spending more on medical care having a higher dropout rate from schools and lower earning opportunities than the households without energy poverty based on its findings the study suggests an urgent need of policy measures focusing on provision of clean and affordable energy to poor households to reduce eliminate energy poverty in cambodia

rural nonfarm employment and incomes in latin america overview and policy implications abstract rural nonfarm employment rnfe and incomes rnfi are crucial to latin american rural households the 11 rural household income studies in this volume reviewed in this paper use 1990s data and show that rnfi averages 40 of rural incomes rnfi and rnfe have grown quickly over the past three decades the review of evidence provided some surprising departures from traditional images of nonfarm activities of latin american rural households in terms of shares of rural incomes 1 nonfarm wage incomes exceed self employment incomes 2 rnfi far exceeds farm wage incomes 3 local rnfi far exceeds migration incomes 4 service sector rnfi far exceeds manufactures rnfi these findings suggest the need for more development program attention to wage employment in the service sector versus the traditional focus on small enterprise manufactures moreover poor households and zones tend to have higher shares in their incomes but lower absolute levels of rnfi as compared to richer households and zones the rnfe of the poor tend to be the low paid nonfarm equivalent of semi subsistence farming raising the capacity of the poor to participate in the better paid types of rnfe is crucial via employment skills training education infrastructure credit finally rnfe has grown fastest and been most poverty alleviating where there are dynamic growth motors in particular in the agricultural sector but also in tourism links to urban areas mining and forestry this means that developing rnf jobs cannot be done at the expense of programs promoting agricultural development

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

targeting energy justice exploring spatial racial ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in urban residential heating energy efficiency abstract fuel poverty the inability of households to afford adequate energy services such as heating is a major energy justice concern increasing residential energy efficiency is a strategic fuel poverty intervention however the absence of easily accessible household energy data impedes effective targeting of energy efficiency programs this paper uses publicly available data bottom up modeling and small area estimation techniques to predict the mean census block group residential heating energy use intensity eui an energy efficiency proxy in kansas city missouri results mapped using geographic information systems gis and statistical analysis show disparities in the relationship between heating eui and spatial racial ethnic and socioeconomic block group characteristics block groups with lower median incomes a greater percentage of households below poverty a greater percentage of racial ethnic minority headed households and a larger percentage of adults with less than a high school education were on average less energy efficient higher euis results also imply that racial segregation which continues to influence urban housing choices exposes black and hispanic households to increased fuel poverty vulnerability lastly the spatial concentration and demographics of vulnerable block groups suggest proactive area and community based targeting of energy efficiency assistance programs may be more effective than existing self referral approaches

duration models and irr management a question of dimensions abstract this paper compares the immunization performance of alternative single and multiple factor duration models using spanish government bond data over 1 2 and 3 year horizons the aim is to assess whether the success of duration matching strategies is primarily attributable to the particular model chosen or to the number of risk factors considered empirical tests show that i traditional immunization is easily bettered by more realistic strategies ii the number of risk factors considered has a greater influence on the result than the particular model chosen and iii three factor immunization strategies offer the highest immunization benchmarks

interest rate volatility and the term structure a two factor general equilibrium model we develop a two factor general equilibrium model of the term structure the factors are the short term interest rate and the volatility of the short term interest rate we derive closed form expressions for discount bonds and study the properties of the term structure implied by the model the dependence of yields on volatility allows the model to capture many observed properties of the term structure we also derive closed form expressions for discount bond options we use hansen s generalized method of moments framework to test the cross sectional restrictions imposed by the model the tests support the two factor model there are essentially two approaches to the modeling of the term structure of interest rates in continuous time the equilibrium approach pioneered by

china s official rates and bond yields abstract recent research shows that bond yields are influenced by monetary policy decisions to learn how this works in a bond market that differs significantly from those in the us and europe we model chinese bond yields using the one year deposit interest rate as a state variable we also include the spread between the one year market interest rate and the one year deposit interest rate as another factor the model is developed in an affine framework and closed form solutions are obtained we then test the model empirically with a markov chain monte carlo simulation procedure the results show that the new model that incorporates the official rate in china characterizes the changing shape of the yield curve well

electricity tariff reforms welfare impacts and energy poverty implications abstract like other energy exporting countries brunei darussalam has pursued an energy pricing policy that sets energy prices below market rates the country introduced tariff reforms replacing the declining block tariff dbt scheme by an increasing block tariff ibt structure in 2012 the reform however was a rate structure change and not a subsidy removal and electricity tariffs in the country remained lower than the long run marginal cost the study investigated a subsidy removal scenario setting the tariff rate at the short run marginal cost which is around 200 higher than the current average tariff rate the results show that with ibt welfare losses and the increase in electricity expenditures would be high for non poor households for those living in urban areas and for those engaged in white collar jobs and it would have been the reverse had the government not introduced tariff rate structure reforms under price elasticity scenarios welfare losses would be high under inelastic than elastic demand case for both ibt and dbt cases electricity expenditures however would remain below 5 level far lower than the energy poverty threshold level of 10 of household income the tariff structure reform therefore shielded the lowest income households from potential impacts of subsidy removal

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

objective vs subjective fuel poverty and self assessed health abstract identification of fuel poverty and its impact on individuals is a growing social issue classifying households using subjective measures of fuel poverty yields different results than when objective measures are used moreover there are assessment related difficulties in establishing the effects on health and wellbeing which hinders policy design to tackle this problem in this paper we propose a latent class ordered probit model to control for subjectivity when analysing the influence of fuel poverty on self reported health this methodology is applied to a sample of 25 000 individuals in 11 000 households for the 2011 2014 period in spain where 5 1 million people 11 of the population could not afford to heat their homes to an adequate temperature in 2014 the results show that poor housing conditions low income material deprivation and fuel poverty have a negative impact on health we also find that the effect of objective fuel poverty and other poverty related factors on health are stronger when we control for unobserved heterogeneity among individuals since objective measures alone may not fully capture the adverse effect of fuel poverty on health we advocate policy approaches that combine both objective and subjective measures and its application by policymakers

energy burden alleviation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction can we reach two objectives with one policy in this article we assess french current public policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas ghg emissions and abate household energy burden through a simulation of changes in residential sector characteristics over the long run we build on an existing partial equilibrium model to take into consideration key determinants of excessive energy burden among vulnerable households this analysis reveals that current public policies are not sufficient to reach the ambitious objectives for reducing energy consumption and ghg emissions in france moreover the decreases that might occur mask significant social disparities across households the joint implementation of multiple instruments leads to interactions that diminish overall policy outcomes overall current public policies produce estimated free riding rates of 75 energy efficiency measures are thus insufficient in themselves the government should focus more on monetary poverty as a cause of low home improvement rates and consider subsidizing renovation costs as a potential solution

competitive inventory management in treasury markets abstract we decompose us treasury bid ask spreads into inventory adverse selection and order processing costs by using the fact that inventory trades have different effects on spreads than do proprietary trades we exploit this asymmetry and develop a technique to identify the three components of the spread in order to test three hypotheses dealers make larger changes to inventory 1 following macroeconomic announcements 2 at the start and toward the end of the new york trading hours and 3 when transaction sizes are relatively large we test these predictions using govpx data for on the run 2 year and 10 year treasury notes all three predictions are supported we also assess how primary dealers react to the federal reserve s open market operations omos our findings reveal interesting intraday patterns in the inventory component for both securities

empowered examining self disconnection in a postal survey of electricity prepayment meter consumers in new zealand abstract prepayment metering is an electricity payment method often used by low income consumers fuel poverty is an important public health problem in new zealand and is likely to be a particular problem for those using prepayment metering this paper details a nationwide postal survey of consumers undertaken with the support of three major electricity retailers which investigated the advantages and disadvantages of using prepayment metering from a consumer perspective the study surveyed a total pool of 359 randomly selected consumers across the three companies a response rate of 48 the study found that while almost all respondents felt the benefits of using prepayment outweighed the risks of running out of credit or self disconnection 53 of respondents experienced self disconnection in the past year of concern over a third of respondents experiencing self disconnection were without electricity for more than 12 h the frequency of self disconnection was also high with 17 of those disconnecting reporting six or more events in the past year government intervention could reduce the risks and disadvantages involved with using prepayment metering which could then support initiatives aimed at reducing fuel poverty

unpacking the meaning of market access evidence from rural kenya summary this paper critically examines the dimensions of market access using farm panel survey data from kenya we investigate changes in ten indicators of market access during the 1997 2010 post liberalization period we find major improvements in certain market access conditions and little change in others there is generally low correlation between alternative indicators of market access all purpose indicators may not accurately reflect specific market access conditions of interest distances to physical infrastructure are often not representative of farmers access to markets changes in specific market access conditions may have more to do with the behaviors of marketing agents we consider the implications of these findings for agricultural marketing policies and for research methods

measuring fuel poverty in france which households are the most fuel vulnerable fuel poverty is a growing concern in france following the hike in energy prices that started in 2004 the problem of energy affordability for low income households entered the political debate with the grenelle de l environnement in 2007 according to the standard uk definition 10 ratio 3 8 million households were subject to fuel poverty in france in 2006 we question the way fuel poverty is currently measured and compare the impact of alternative measurement approaches on the extent and composition of fuel poverty in france then we identify and characterize vulnerable households that are not ordinarily poor but can be pushed into poverty because of their fuel bills a logit a clog log and a mixed effect logit model are used to analyze which factors influence the probability of vulnerable households to fall into poverty the study indicates that the proportion of fuel poor people and their characteristics differ significantly depending on the fuel poverty measure chosen the econometric results show that the probability of falling into poverty is higher for those who are retired living alone rent their home use an individual boiler for heating cook with butane or propane and have poor roof insulation current french fuel poverty reduction policies appear to be inappropriate given our conclusions

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

measuring energy poverty in japan 2004 2013 abstract this paper first examines energy or fuel poverty in japan from 2004 to 2013 especially around the time of the 2011 great east japan earthquake geje to analyze the issue the paper employs various poverty and vulnerability measures with the assistance of our unique dataset the results indicate the aggravation of energy poverty among lower income and vulnerable households during the past decade resulting from both the escalation of energy prices and lowering of income the analysis also employs a new decomposition technique and identifies the explanatory factors associated with the increase in energy poverty these results suggest there were major changes in the forces driving the increase in energy poverty before and after the geje after 2011 income alleviates energy poverty in japan with energy prices becoming the main driving factor

conceptualising housing costs the hidden face of energy poverty in poland abstract the study proposes an approach to assess a hidden aspect of energy poverty ep in poland we consider households energy under consumption driven by low energy efficiency and budgetary constraints a household is exposed to hidden energy poverty hep if it s total disposable income after deducting the expected housing cost falls under the established threshold to approximate the expected total housing expenditures the data from the eu silc dataset on dwellings parameters households attributes and regional characteristics of poland is used the results show that in 2017 the scale of exposure to hep in poland was 23 7 per cent and this phenomenon is to some extent linked to income poverty there is a clear distinction between subjective ep indicators and exposure to hep two different profiles of exposed to hep households in poland are constructed the first group lives in detached houses and is composed of households with dependent children the second group consists of elderly people inhabiting blocks of flats both groups should be targeted by separate policies

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

adolescents and electricity consumption investigating sociodemographic economic and behavioural influences on electricity consumption in households with respect to changes in the energy systems of many countries electricity consumption in households is an important topic extensive research has investigated the various determinants of electricity consumption however insights into how specific sociodemographic behavioural and attitudinal determinants influence residential electricity consumption are still scarce in this study we used hierarchical regression analysis to systematically investigate these determinants including household engagement in electricity saving along with a wide range of other measures in a sample of german households n 763 special attention was given to households with adolescents and children by analysing the influence of the number of adolescents on electricity consumption in a path model our results indicate that sociodemographic influences can be explained by the purchasing and use behaviours of residents our findings also suggest that the use of behavioural information provides a more detailed picture of the conditions of electricity consumption and thus allows for more appropriate policy planning

quantifying the prevalence of fuel poverty across the european union abstract the literature and policy base for fuel poverty in the uk and ireland is well established and there is a growing body of single country studies beyond these two eu member states for example brunner et al 2012 dubois 2012 robine et al 2008 however on a european level the last analysis of fuel poverty was conducted in 2004 prior to the enlargement of the eu using survey data this paper presents an updated overview of the prevalence of european fuel poverty in the context of the accession of numerous former social states and rising fuel prices analysis reveals the phenomenon of fuel poverty is occurring across the eu with particularly high levels of fuel poverty found in eastern and southern european states it is argued that there are both eu and national policy frameworks in place that address climate change and these could be used as a starting point for countries to address fuel poverty through improved domestic energy efficiency measures this paper reflects research undertaken in 2011 supported by eaga charitable trust within the umbrella of work examining issues of poverty and social exclusion across the eu which has enabled access to the eu silc dataset

densification what does it mean for fuel poverty and energy justice an empirical analysis energy is increasingly at the forefront of the global political agenda while there is a longstanding literature relating to fuel poverty and increasingly energy justice there remains little evidence which explores its link with the urban form specifically the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the urban consolidation hypothesis and the cultivation of energy justice in australia this study uses data from the household income and labour dynamics in australia hilda survey years 2007 2014 a national probability sample and indefinite life panel the substantive findings of this study demonstrate that for low income and renting households greater urban density corresponds to a higher likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty further for households with a dwelling type described as an apartment two or three storeys there is a separate and quite generalisable indication that this type of dwelling is associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty this study connects the debate regarding urban consolidation and energy consumption to the fuel poverty and energy justice literature alongside this contribution this study also provides policymakers and planners with new evidence to inform remediation policies that are directed at supporting the fuel poor

cash crop choice and income dynamics in rural areas evidence for post crisis indonesia in this article we investigate the factors affecting levels and growth of incomes in rural indonesia following the crisis of 1997 1998 in particular we investigate the relative roles of nonfarm incomes and productivity improvements achieved via changes in crops versus improvements on the same crops on income dynamics framing the article in the context of an optimal labor allocation model relying on unique household panel data from central sulawesi and using advanced panel econometric methods we find that local innovations related to the adoption and intensification of new cash crop varieties more specifically the shift from coffee to cocoa production can explain a substantial part of the observed post crisis developments causal estimates of the effect of growing cocoa suggest that households were on average able to achieve about 14 higher income levels during the post crisis period compared to the planting of other crops most notably coffee also our results demonstrate the importance of engagement in nonfarm activities for household income growth comparative analyses using a nationally representative survey suggest that similar processes are at play in other parts of indonesia

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

constructing energy poverty profiles for an effective energy policy abstract energy poverty is becoming ever more important for academia and policymakers this study conducts fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis fsqca with the aim of constructing energy poverty profiles fsqca was performed on 150 households the results show that energy poor households are characterised by the interdependence and intertwining of socio demographic ownership status education level labour force status and household size and housing type of building central heating system and solar collectors heat pump characteristics the conditions form eight equifinal configurations related to energy poor households none of the individual characteristics is able to explain energy poverty alone although strong interrelations are present in the outcomes the study also highlights that the conditions play different roles in the presence or absence of energy poverty giving policymakers the necessary leeway to formulate effective policies as part of agendas covering poverty in general poor health climate change and domestic energy inefficiency this study suggests that energy poverty is a structural issue mainly arising from poor energy efficient buildings and or labour market inefficiencies

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

the economic importance of non timber forest products ntfps for livelihood maintenance of rural west african communities a case study from northern benin non timber forest products ntfps contribute significantly to a rural household s livelihood in the african semi arid tropics this study examines the income from ntfps and the dependency on these of different socio economic groups in northern benin using survey data from 230 households of two villages we firstly compared incomes of five different ethnic groups being differentiated by their traditional source of livelihood and regional provenance secondly we investigated disparities between three income groups on average income from ntfps accounted for 39 of total household income and had a strong equalizing effect on it however the economic relevance of ntfps differs between households poorer households are relatively more dependent on ntfps in order to fulfill basic needs than wealthier households however the latter extract more ntfps in quantitative terms and have significantly higher cash returns than poorer ones this is mainly due to a significant greater land holding moreover our study revealed that net income from ntfps reflects traditional sources of livelihoods of different ethnic groups in conclusion both conservation and development strategies should take into consideration the socio economic context of different beneficiaries of savanna woodland resources in order to apply appropriate measures to poverty reduction

evaluating fuel poverty policy in northern ireland using a geographic approach abstract recent audits have shown that anti fuel poverty policies in the uk depend on loosely defined targeting and cannot accurately identify fuel poor households new methods of targeting are necessary to improve fuel poverty policy this paper uses geographic information system gis techniques to evaluate the targeting of a home energy efficiency scheme small area level in northern ireland based on the level of need the concept of need is modelled using an area based multi dimensional fuel poverty risk index the characteristics and spatial distribution of household retrofits are explored policy activity and expenditure are compared with the level of need in an area results indicate that policy activity is only weakly associated with the level of need in an area although policy appears to be well targeted in a few areas contrary to existing evidence rural areas appear to be well served by policy receiving above average numbers of retrofits and expenditure there are typically two types of retrofit major and minor most retrofits are minor and may not reduce fuel poverty these results evidence the limitations of the current targeting system and suggest that there may be scope for improved policy implemented via a more proactive area based approach

nonparametric modeling of u s interest rate term structure dynamics and implications on the prices of derivative securities this paper develops a nonparametric model of interest rate term structure dynamics based on a spot rate process that permits only positive interest rates and a market price of interest rate risk that precludes arbitrage opportunities both the spot rate process and the mar ket price of interest rate risk are nonparametrically specified so that the model allows for maximal flexibility in fitting into the data marginal density of interest rates and historical term structure data are exploited to provide robust estimation of the nonparametric term structure model the model is implemented using u s data and the estimation results are compared to those in the available literature empirical results not only provide strong evidence that most traditional spot rate models and market prices of interest rate risk are misspecified but also confirm that the nonparametric model generates significantly differ ent term structures and prices of common derivatives

a stochastic model for energy poverty analysis abstract so far the lack of a common effective way of measuring energy poverty has been detected as a major weakness in handling the energy poverty problem one of the main causes has been the complexity of modeling the required energy consumption of households as demanded by the official 10 indicator and its replacement in calculations by the actual energy consumption which as is well known underestimates the real needs of households this weakness is addressed in this paper through the development of the stochastic model of energy poverty smep the development of the model includes firstly the modeling of energy consumption at household level and subsequently the transition from household level to country level through stochastic analysis monte carlo simulation through sensitivity analysis the impact of various parameters on energy poverty is quantified for the first time by determining their weighting factors applied to the case of greece it is found that energy poverty reaches 70 4 with income being the decisive factor affecting energy poverty at 63 while other variables htot etc follow at significantly lower percentages the findings can be used in order to assess in advance the effectiveness of energy poverty measures making the model a valuable policy tool

fuel poverty and well being a consumer theory and stochastic frontier approach abstract evidence and conventional wisdom suggest that general poverty has a negative effect on the well being of individuals however the mechanisms through which this effect occurs are not well understood through economic approach in this paper we analyse the influence of general and fuel poverty as well as the social dimension through peer comparison on the subjective well being of households we develop a novel approach to analyse fuel poverty and well being based on consumer theory individual preferences are modelled using indifference curves and a distance function where the preferences of individuals are affected by their poverty status we use the survey data from the official spanish life condition survey for 2013 which contains over 16 608 observations on household members the results show that both general and fuel poverty influence the reference indifference curve but that individuals also compare themselves with their peers the proposed model also allows us to corroborate how general and fuel poverty affect well being and how effective policies can be designed to improve social welfare

addressing self disconnection among prepayment energy consumers a behavioural approach abstract this paper explores links between self control in decision making and self disconnection by households using energy prepayment meters self disconnection happens when households exhaust all available credit in their meter and are left without a supply of energy because they have been unable to top up this has serious consequences for the well being of households and also increases firms costs we explore behavioural characteristics associated with self disconnection and present saving plans to help households minimise self disconnection we show that in our sample stated self disconnection is positively associated with lower levels of goal achievement we also show that households which have already experienced self disconnection are more likely to accept an energy savings plan it is relevant and promising that these households tend to select saving plans most likely to minimise their likelihood of self disconnection our findings give some useful insights for energy policy making both for policy makers interested in alleviating energy poverty and for energy utilities keen to limit self disconnection

the mediating role of social workers in the implementation of regional policies targeting energy poverty abstract this paper aims to provide a socio political reflection of the role played by social workers in regional policies and of the real needs of households affected by energy poverty the paper also examines the impact of technical specialised training on the ability of social workers to prevent and mitigate conditions of household energy poverty in europe the adoption of a research action participation methodological framework and a training research approach has permitted the opinions of social workers to be collected through surveys and their central role in implementing regional policies to be highlighted the conclusions obtained have made possible the construction of a self diagnosis and data collection tool which increases the ability of social workers to mediate and implement urgent mitigation measures for energy poverty finally regional policies which aim to mitigate household energy poverty are examined from the professional perspective of social workers

environmental income and rural livelihoods a global comparative analysis this paper presents results from a comparative analysis of environmental income from approximately 8000 households in 24 developing countries collected by research partners in cifor s poverty environment network pen environmental income accounts for 28 of total household income 77 of which comes from natural forests environmental income shares are higher for low income households but differences across income quintiles are less pronounced than previously thought the poor rely more heavily on subsistence products such as wood fuels and wild foods and on products harvested from natural areas other than forests in absolute terms environmental income is approximately five times higher in the highest income quintile compared to the two lowest quintiles

measuring and monitoring fuel poverty in the uk national and regional perspectives abstract throughout the industrialised world fuel poverty is the most commonly accepted term with which to describe a household s inability to afford basic standards of heat power and light whilst the term gained widespread acceptance with the publication of the uk s fuel poverty strategy in 2001 little is known about the origins of the term itself this paper traces the earliest formulations of the concept focusing particularly on the 10 needs to spend threshold which was adopted in 1991 and remains in place some 20 years later this paper argues that understanding more about the origins of this threshold yields a more critical understanding of why fuel poverty targets in the uk have not been reached and enables a more informed approach to setting realistic targets for the future it also provides an opportunity to explore regional disparities in uk fuel poverty prevalence highlighting the extent to which rigid adherence to a 10 threshold has created an unstable regional mosaic of over estimation and under estimation

towards a new approach in measuring energy poverty household level analysis of urban india abstract measurement of energy poverty has been a missing priority in energy research there is hardly any consensus regarding whether to consider energy as a resource or capacity output or outcome and quantity or service in this paper we revisit major approaches in literature to assess energy poverty economic engineering and access based including others we critique the economic and engineering approaches for the arbitrariness of cut offs and the misplaced emphasis on less meaningful energy quantity finding the access based approach most suitable we propose a method of assessing energy poverty based on deprivation in modern cooking and lighting fuels we divide the energy poor into three groups transitional moderate and extreme energy poor we apply the method to india s urban areas of different states and union territories using the national sample survey data the results reveal energy poverty to be primarily dictated by deprivation in cooking and a greater incidence of energy poverty in larger states in contrast to conventional measures we compute the depth and severity of energy poverty only for energy poor as opposed to for the entire population these complementary measures depict energy poverty of energy poor more accurately and therefore will direct the attention of pro poor energy policies and programmes appropriately

analysis of energy poverty intensity from the perspective of the regional administration empirical evidence from households in southern europe abstract the current economic situation has increased the number of households in europe experiencing restrictions and or limitations of affordability of energy services demonstrating the urgent need to intervene in those extreme cases in which households suffer the daily consequences of what is internationally defined as energy poverty in such a context this paper presents the results obtained in a case study characterising a sample of 615 households with demonstrated energy poverty in the region of aragon spain in parallel the intensity of energy poverty in the studied cases is examined by measuring the percentage of energy expenditures with respect to income in the households that suffer it and a descriptive analysis of the main determinants of energy poverty in the homes studied is presented as well as the policy implication at regional level

poor energy poor energy saving obligations distributional effects and the malfunction of the priority group abstract the european union s energy efficiency directive forces the member states to install energy efficiency obligation schemes in a first step this paper identifies the distributional effects caused by this policy instrument which occur when energy efficiency measures are implemented phase of delivery and when its costs are passed on to the society phase of financing in the phase of delivery suppliers prefer to implement measures at the property of those customers which enable them to minimise their costs i e enterprises with large energy savings potentials and high income households who can contribute a greater share of the costs in the phase of financing distributional effects occur when the costs of the scheme are passed on from the obliged suppliers to their customers primarily affecting less competitive customers i e households and small enterprises in the british scheme the so called priority group was installed in order to decrease distributional effects and to support energy poor households in a second step this paper evaluates approaches to reduce energy poverty and indicates ineffectiveness high transaction costs and incoherency with the aims of the obligation scheme alternative approaches to tackle energy poverty are briefly described

definitions of fuel poverty implications for policy abstract this paper outlines why the definition of fuel poverty is important in policy formulation and describes how the government s current definitions evolved from the original concept it discusses the determination of income and fuel costs and the possibilities for a relative and common european measure it examines problems inherent in assessing fuel costs as a percentage of income and puts forward the arguments for a budget standard approach the paper illustrates how the size of the problem depends on the definition and chosen threshold and suggests advantages for a rating scale it illustrates how the income composition and thresholds also govern the distribution of the target populations and the relative importance of the main causal factors and examines the consequent policy implications it explores the definition of vulnerable households and the importance of severity and questions whether the uk fuel poverty strategy is targeted at households least able to afford their fuel costs as the name implies or primarily those at risk from excess winter and summer mortality and morbidity finally after examining the role of supplementary indicators it looks at the opportunities for changing the definition and comments on the government review of the definition and targets

poverty alleviation and tropical forests what scope for synergies abstract this paper explores the state of the art of the two way causal links between poverty alleviation and natural tropical forests microimpacts of rising poverty can increase or slow forest loss at the macrolevel poverty also has an ambiguous effect but it is probable that higher income stimulates forest loss by raising demand for agricultural land the second question is what potential forest led development has to alleviate a country s poverty in terms of producer benefits consumer benefits and economy wide employment natural forests widely serve as safety nets for the rural poor but it proves difficult to raise producer benefits significantly urban consumer benefits from forest an important target for pro poor agricultural innovation are limited and seldom favor the poor absorption of poor unskilled labor is low in forestry which tends to be capital intensive natural forests may thus lack comparative advantage for poverty alleviation there are few win win synergies between natural forests and national poverty reduction which may help to explain why the loss of tropical forests is ongoing this may have important implications for our understanding of sustainable forest development and for the design of both conservation and poverty alleviation strategies

modelling the term structure of interest rates an efficient nonparametric approach abstract we propose a new approach for estimating the coefficients of the term structure equation by means of the volatility of the interest rates and the slope of the yield curve one advantage of this approach consists in the fact that the drift and the market price of risk are jointly estimated and need not be individually specified we then generate trajectories in a test problem to investigate the finite properties of this approach our simulation results show that this new approach outperforms the classic nonparametric models in the literature finally an application to usa treasury bill data is also illustrated

the effect of liberalizing uk retail energy markets on consumers this paper describes the evolution of supply competition in the uk residential energy market and the extent to which consumers in general and vulnerable households in particular have benefited from liberalization it concludes that earlier fears about higher prices for vulnerable groups from tariff rebalancing have not so far been realized however in assessing the extent to which suppliers may be able to exploit individual or joint market power increasing concentration in the downstream market may result in adverse effects on all consumers especially low income households this poses a threat to the government s programme to reduce fuel poverty particularly at a time when upstream costs are expected to rise to reflect environmental concerns copyright 2005 oxford university press

the elephant in the energy room establishing the nexus between housing poverty and fuel poverty abstract this paper contributes to the literature on fuel poverty by bringing together the housing cost induced poverty definition and the low income high cost indicator relying on the housing cost induced poverty definition this paper identifies three dimensions of fuel poverty 1 income poverty high cost 2 housing cost induced poverty high cost and 3 fuel cost induced poverty high cost after breaking down the underlying structure of the low income high cost framework this paper proposes an alternative conceptual definition of fuel poverty and puts forward an empirical strategy which can help to identify the households most in need of financial and energy related support an application based on energy cost data in england allows us to identify several policy implications following from our proposed approach

a new measure of italian hidden energy poverty abstract as highlighted by european policymakers and academic research the global economic crisis of 2008 emphasized the energy poverty phenomenon a number of households have had to considerably reduce their energy expenditure but the traditional criteria adopted to calculate energy poverty are not able to measure their number placed in this framework the paper aims to define a new measure of hidden energy poverty suitable to identify which italian households restrain their energy consumption due to their inability to afford energy services a review of the available energy poverty metrics supports the definition of a new indicator that is able to include hidden energy poor consumers considering some key peculiarities such as the poor energy efficiency of buildings the poverty situation low energy consumption and sensitivity to the climate using data from the household budget survey provided by the italian national institute of statistics in 2018 the newly identified indicator supports the assessment of the percentage of italian households in hidden energy poverty and supplies useful insight to policymakers in their effort to support vulnerable consumers

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

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

dynamic models of the term structure in the past 25 years tremendous progress has been made in modeling the dynamics of the term structure of interest rates which play an instrumental role in determining prices and hedging portfolios of fixed income derivative securities this article reviews the theoretical development of the dynamic models of the default free term structure and their applications in pricing interest rate options classic models sometimes termed equilibrium models and their multifactor extensions are outlined these models provide clear economic intuitions connecting the term structure with economic fundamentals they also lay a foundation for the framework of the arbitrage models that price interest rate derivatives on the basis of the market prices of bonds this framework has been expanded and enriched by recent advances in directly modeling observable market rates through the market models and in incorporating an internally consistent correlation structure through the infinite dimensional models

village economic opportunity forest dependence and rural livelihoods in east kalimantan indonesia summary the changing role of forests in people s livelihoods in frontier areas is important from the perspective of poverty alleviation and forest conservation this study explores the link between expanding economic opportunities forest dependence and welfare in 73 villages village economic options forest cover and land suitability for agriculture and forestry are determining factors of people s well being increased accessibility to markets and deforestation are strongly associated with economic diversity at the village level increased economic diversity larger areas of forests more intensive land use higher endowments of agricultural land and forest and higher village population are related to increased well being

dynamic properties of energy affordability measures measures of affordability are applied in practice e g to assess the affordability of energy services water or housing they can be interpreted as measures of deprivation in a specific domain of consumption the large body of literature on affordability measure has little overlap with the existing literature on poverty measurement a comprehensive assessment of the response of affordability measures as a result of changes in the distribution of income or expenditure is missing this paper aims to fill this gap by providing a conceptual discussion on the dynamics of energy affordability measures several types of measures are examined in a microsimulation framework to assess their dynamic properties our results indicate that some measures exhibit odd dynamic behavior this includes measures used in practice such as the low income high cost measure and the double median of expenditure share indicator odd dynamic behavior is attributed to definitions made with respect to higher moments of the expenditure distribution definitions that rely on a percentage share of expenditure relative to income or an absolute or relative income poverty line fare well from a dynamic perspective

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

occupant behaviour as a fourth driver of fuel poverty aka warmth energy deprivation a conceptual framework for occupant behaviour as a driver of fuel poverty is presented comprising housing and use of the home heating and energy arrangements and thermal comfort household structure and dynamics health and well being household finances and social activity and relations this framework informs longitudinal analysis of movements into and out of fuel poverty among households in deprived communities in glasgow household surveys across ten years yielded a longitudinal sample of 3297 cases where initial and subsequent fuel poverty status was recorded using an experiential measure a third of households changed their fuel poverty status over time 18 moving out of fuel poverty and 16 moving in factors strongly associated with movements into fuel poverty included being a single parent or 2 27 experiencing a mental health problem or 2 74 and remaining out of work or 1 89 movement out of fuel poverty was less likely among those with infrequent family contact or 0 55 and who moved home or 0 66 home improvements had no effect upon the experience of fuel poverty it is argued that the policy problem should be considered one of warmth and energy deprivation accompanied by a broader interpretation of vulnerability to as well as from fuel poverty

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

assessing the fuel poverty vulnerability of urban neighbourhoods using a spatial multi criteria decision analysis for the german city of oberhausen abstract tackling fuel poverty has become an increasingly important issue on many european countries political agendas consequently national governments local authorities and ngos have established policies and programmes to reduce the fuel poverty vulnerability of households however evaluations of such policies and programmes show that they barely reach those who are most in need the reasons for this failure are diverse and include fuel poverty measurement metrics local scale data availability and policy design this raises the question of how fuel poor homes can be more effectively identified and targeted to ensure that limited local and national budgets are used to benefit those who most need help area based approaches which pinpoint spatial units highly affected by fuel poverty due to their specific characteristics offer an opportunity for creating more tailored policies and programmes in this study the author developed a gis mcda multi criteria decision analysis using an ahp analytical hierarchy process and applied the approach to the german city of oberhausen the overall issue of fuel poverty was broken down into three vulnerability dimensions heating burden socio economic and building vulnerability the relative importance of fuel poverty criteria and the dimensions were evaluated by experts and an overall fuel poverty index was created to assess the relative fuel poverty vulnerability of 168 urban neighbourhoods the analysis offers insights into the spatial pattern of fuel poverty within a city and thus provides an opportunity to channel efforts towards households in those neighbourhoods most in need it also demonstrates that a trade off between ecological and social targets should be considered in the development of future policies for tackling fuel poverty

fuel poverty as injustice integrating distribution recognition and procedure in the struggle for affordable warmth bringing attention to fuel poverty as a distinct manifestation of social inequality has asserted the place of affordable warmth in the profile of contemporary rights and entitlements as such fuel poverty can be understood as an expression of injustice involving the compromised ability to access energy services and thereby to secure a healthful living environment in this paper we consider how fuel poverty may be aligned to various alternative concepts of social and environmental justice whilst recognising that fuel poverty is fundamentally a complex problem of distributive injustice we argue that other understandings of injustice are also implicated and play important roles in producing and sustaining inequalities in access to affordable warmth addressing fuel poverty has to involve seeking justice in terms of the cultural and political recognition of vulnerable and marginalised social groups and pursuing procedural justice through opening up involvement and influence in decision making processes we make this argument both in theoretical terms and through considering the experience of fuel poverty advocacy and policy development in the uk opportunities for future action may be illuminated through such interconnected justice framings as wider awareness of energy climate and poverty issues emerge

energy equity and the future of the fuel poor abstract a warm and adequately lit home is considered a basic need together with access to energy consuming appliances ranging from a fridge to a tv an underlying tenet of sustainable energy is that such basic needs should be affordably met yet low incomes energy inefficient housing and appliances and high energy costs mean that roughly 10 per cent of uk households many of them elderly or with young children fail to attain this basic standard these households which would need to spend more than 10 per cent of their income to attain adequate energy services are officially defined as fuel poor their cold poorly equipped homes lead to chronic cold related health conditions exacerbate social isolation and may undermine educational achievement in addition rural areas have a disproportionately high incidence of fuel poverty this review examines the current distribution of energy consumption its social impacts and the opportunities to address fuel poverty through improvements to the housing stock it will then consider potential future developments

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

price and income elasticities of residential energy demand in germany we apply a quadratic expenditure system to estimate price and expenditure elasticities of residential energy demand electricity and heating in germany using official expenditure data from 1993 to 2008 we estimate an expenditure elasticity for electricity of 0 3988 and of 0 4055 for space heating the own price elasticity for electricity is 0 4310 and 0 5008 in the case of space heating disaggregation of households by expenditure and demographic composition reveals that the behavioural response to energy price changes is weaker stronger for low income top income households there are considerable economies of scale in residential energy use but scale effects are not well approximated by the new oedc equivalence scale real increases in energy prices show a regressive pattern of incidence implying that the welfare consequences of direct energy taxation are larger for low income households the application of zero elasticities in assessments of welfare consequences of energy taxation strongly underestimates potential welfare effects the increase in inequality is 22 smaller when compared to the application of rich and disaggregated behavioural response patterns as estimated in this paper