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Vulnerable households and fuel poverty: Measuring the efficiency of policy targeting in Queensland

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  • Simshauser, Paul

Abstract

When Australia established its National Electricity Market (NEM) during the 1990s, reforms were focused on maximising economic efficiency. Little thought was given to distributional outcomes. However, by the 2010s sluggish growth in household incomes, sharp rises in electricity prices and material increases in quantities consumed through surging uptake rates of air-conditioning units led to the possibility of (hot climate) fuel poverty. In the Queensland region, longstanding customer hardship policy pre-dated the establishment of the NEM. With the benefit of hindsight, the policy was poorly configured as it focused exclusively on the aged population and was delivered by way of fixed payment. Low income households in the family formation cohort were excluded from the policy despite obvious need. In this article, Queensland's longstanding customer hardship policy is refined using pre-existing (means-tested) welfare mechanisms in order to target low income households including families, and the payment structure is altered from fixed ($ pa) to variable (% of the bill) while holding the budget constraint constant. Changes to policy targeting produce material improvements in horizontal and vertical efficiency while changes to payment structure further enhance vertical performance, with the incidence and depth of residual fuel poverty reduced.

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  • Simshauser, Paul, 2021. "Vulnerable households and fuel poverty: Measuring the efficiency of policy targeting in Queensland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:101:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321003029
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105405
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    1. Pillai, Arya & Tovar Reaños, Miguel & Curtis, John, 2022. "Fuel poverty in Ireland: an analysis of trends and profiles," Papers WP729, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Ye, Yuxiang & Koch, Steven F., 2021. "Measuring energy poverty in South Africa based on household required energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Okorie, David Iheke & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Association of energy poverty and catastrophic health expenditure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    4. Paul Simshauser, 2022. "The 2022 energy crisis: horizontal and vertical impacts of policy interventions in Australia's national electricity market," Working Papers EPRG2216, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    5. Paul Simshauser, 2022. "Fuel Poverty and the 2022 Energy Crisis," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(4), pages 503-514, December.
    6. Rafał Nagaj, 2022. "Macroeconomic Policy versus Fuel Poverty in Poland—Support or Barrier," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Hammerle, Mara & Burke, Paul J., 2022. "From natural gas to electric appliances: Energy use and emissions implications in Australian homes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    8. Binh Nguyen, Duong & Nong, Duy & Simshauser, Paul & Nguyen-Huy, Thong, 2022. "General equilibrium impact evaluation of food top-up induced by households’ renewable power self-supply in 141 regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    9. George E. Halkos & Panagiotis-Stavros C. Aslanidis, 2023. "Addressing Multidimensional Energy Poverty Implications on Achieving Sustainable Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-30, April.
    10. Michael Adu Okyere & Boqiang Lin, 2023. "Invisible among the vulnerable: a nuanced perspective of energy poverty at the intersection of gender and disability in South Africa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Croon, T.M. & Hoekstra, J.S.C.M. & Dubois, U., 2024. "Energy poverty alleviation by social housing providers: A qualitative investigation of targeted interventions in France, England, and the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Simshauser, Paul, 2023. "The 2022 energy crisis: Fuel poverty and the impact of policy interventions in Australia's National Electricity Market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    13. Esplin, Ryan & Best, Rohan & Scranton, Jessica & Chai, Andreas, 2022. "Who pays the loyalty tax? The relationship between socioeconomic status and switching in Australia's retail electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. Croon, T.M. & Hoekstra, J.S.C.M. & Elsinga, M.G. & Dalla Longa, F. & Mulder, P., 2023. "Beyond headcount statistics: Exploring the utility of energy poverty gap indices in policy design," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    15. Lin, Boqiang & Okyere, Michael Adu, 2023. "Race and energy poverty: The moderating role of subsidies in South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    16. Simshauser, Paul & Miller, Wendy, 2023. "On the impact of targeted and universal electricity concessions policy on fuel poverty in the NEM's Queensland region," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1848-1857.
    17. Esplin, Ryan & Nelson, Tim, 2022. "Redirecting solar feed in tariffs to residential battery storage: Would it be worth it?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 373-389.
    18. Simshauser, P., 2023. "Fuel poverty in Queensland: horizontal and vertical impacts of the 2022 energy crisis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2257, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy affordability; Fuel poverty; Policy targeting; Targeting efficiency; Customer hardship policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

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