Incidence, depth, and severity of energy poverty in Central and Eastern Europe in 2020: What factors make a household fall deeper into a predicament?

Abstract

The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic increased the existing inequalities. In this study we focus on the depth and severity of housing-costs-induced energy poverty, mostly overlooked in the existing analysis, and examine disparities among the energy poor in eleven Central and Eastern European countries in 2020. We measure housing-costs-induced energy poverty and follow the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke approach to assess energy poverty. The microdata comes from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions. We select eight variables describing household, dwelling, and area density and use censored regression to tease out the effect of factors making a household fall deeper into energy poverty. Our results show that in 2020 energy poverty ranged between 16.4% (Czechia) and 29.6% (Bulgaria). The median depth in absolute terms is about 594.8–1951 euros per year depending on the country. We provide evidence that living in multi-family buildings and densely populated areas decreases the energy poverty depth. Generally, renters are more vulnerable than owners; large families need more money to get out of energy poverty. The analysis reveals that increased depth correlates with heightened severity, thereby highlighting the disparities among individuals experiencing energy poverty. We suggest policymakers account for the depth and severity aspects because deep energy poverty requires more effort to eliminate even if the scale of the problem is not large.

Keywords

Energy poverty / Depth / Severity / Housing costs / Censored regression / Foster-Greer-Thorbecke metrics / Central and Eastern Europe

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Funding

Narodowe Centrum Nauki(2021/43/B/HS4/01862)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s)