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Energy efficient technology adoption and low-income households in the EU: What is the evidence?

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  • Schleich, Joachim

Abstract

This paper studies the adoption of high-cost, medium-cost, and low-cost energy-efficient technologies (EETs) by income categories in eight European Union countries, relying on demographically representative household surveys carried out simultaneously among about 15,000 households in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The statistical-econ-ometric analyses allow the effects of income to differ by income quartiles in each country. For retrofit measures, the findings suggest that homeowners falling into the lowest income quartile exhibit lower adoption propensities than those falling into the highest income quartile. These findings provide support for policies tar-geting "poor homeowners", particularly in lower-income countries with a high share of owner-occupiers such as Poland and Romania. Further, differences in adoption propensities across income quartiles also exist for medium- and low-cost EETs such as appliances and light bulbs. Finally, analyzing factors related to homeowners' receiving financial support for retrofit measures from govern-ments or utilities suggests that differences in implementation rates between the highest and lowest income quartile would likely have been higher without such support schemes in place. For the United Kingdom (but not for other countries) these schemes appeared to have had a progressive effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Schleich, Joachim, 2018. "Energy efficient technology adoption and low-income households in the EU: What is the evidence?," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S12/2018, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), revised 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s122018
    DOI: 10.24406/publica-fhg-299059
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2014. "Household transitions to energy efficient lighting," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-160.
    2. Andreja Cirman & Srna MandiÄ & Jelena Zorić, 2013. "Decisions to Renovate: Identifying Key Determinants in Central and Eastern European Post-socialist Countries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(16), pages 3378-3393, December.
    3. Thomson, Harriet & Snell, Carolyn, 2013. "Quantifying the prevalence of fuel poverty across the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 563-572.
    4. Legendre, Bérangère & Ricci, Olivia, 2015. "Measuring fuel poverty in France: Which households are the most fuel vulnerable?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 620-628.
    5. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Meissner, Thomas & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "A large-scale test of the effects of time discounting, risk aversion, loss aversion, and present bias on household adoption of energy-efficient technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 377-393.
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    Cited by:

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    Keywords

    energy poverty; energy efficiency; adoption; poor homeowners; subsidies; econometrics;
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