Journal
POST-COMMUNIST ECONOMIES
Volume 29, Issue 1, Pages 27-50Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/14631377.2016.1242257
Keywords
Energy poverty; energy justice; housing; regional inequality; Eastern and Central Europe
Categories
Funding
- European Research Council under the European Union [313478]
- European Research Council (ERC) [313478] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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Falling real incomes, rising utility prices and the historically poor thermal quality of the housing stock are some of the main factors that have driven the rise of systemic injustices surrounding energy poverty in the post-communist states of Eastern and Central Europe (ECE). We undertake a socio-spatial and temporal assessment of energy poverty in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, using Household Budget Survey micro-data and the consolidated national results of the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions. Our results indicate that increases in domestic energy prices and expenditures during the last decade have not been offset by purchasing power gains or energy efficiency improvements, resulting in sustained and growing levels of energy poverty. Capital city regions have fared better than rural areas even if traditional macroeconomic performance indicators do not easily match domestic energy deprivation metrics. We thus question policy approaches that favour income-based solutions and fail to recognise housing-and demography-related vulnerabilities.
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