Research

Funded by Seoul National University Institute for Sustainable Development (Masters Thesis)

Abstract

Energy poverty is a state where households are unable to access or afford sufficient energy for adequate living. Tackling the issue of energy poverty is closely related to discussing the social dimension of energy transitions and even further climate change. As a result, recent studies have emphasized the need for clear standards to define the energy poor and to effectively target strategies for managing scarce energy resources. Furthermore, the nature of energy poverty is likely to change in the modern era of energy transition, and advanced forms of action need to be actively discussed in future studies. Thus, the purpose of this study is to confirm the multidimensionality of energy poverty and propose the need to accurately target assistance to energy poor households as means to achieve energy justice.

This study utilized the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI) to identify energy poor households in Korea with the ‘Household Energy Panel Data’ provided by the Korea Energy Economics Institute. Then, an analysis of the spatiotemporal patterns of energy poverty in Korea was conducted. More specifically, this study discovered the differences in energy poverty patterns between regions, seasons, and over the years 2013-2019. Lastly, through regression, household characteristic that have high correlation with the patterns of energy poverty in Korea were examined.

The results of this study are that first, energy poverty rates in Korea have decreased, but still, a significant portion of the population is energy deprived. Second, energy poverty rates show different spatial patterns by season and regions. Energy poverty tends to be more severe in the winter, however, summer energy poverty rates continue to rise. Lastly, aside from income, household, housing, and energy source characteristics were significantly related to energy poor households. Thus, this study calls for a multidimensional approach to understand energy poor households and target aid to households facing energy deprivation.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (Special Issue - Under Review)

(First author - with Huijoo Shon)

Abstract

While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) opened a new era for combating poverty and inequality in energy sectors, energy poverty and unequal electricity access persist in many African countries. A strategic allocation of energy aid has thus become an urgent issue for an energy just world. Although previous studies have analyzed energy aid effectiveness using geocoded data and improved measurement of energy poverty, they were limited to single-country cases, short periods of data, or one- dimensional poverty measures. This paper investigates the spatial patterns of energy aid and multidimensional energy poverty index for the last 20 years in four African countries; Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. First, we investigate the realm of distributional justice by scrutinizing ‘where’ energy aid concentrates. Then, to tackle the issue of recognition justice, we discover ‘who’ receives energy aid by identifying whether energy poor regions benefit from energy aid. The results show that energy aid tends to focus toward capital cities or urbanized areas and analogous patterns are evident with the electricity distribution sector and renewable sector aid. Also, energy poverty rates are distinctly lower in urban and affluent regions, whereas impoverished areas continue to experience energy deprivation. However, a large amount of aid did not flow to the disadvantaged population but to the wealthy. As a result, energy aid disparity persists in the four countries over time. These results support the need for equitable distribution of aid and for an energy just world.

Working Paper: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4070321 / Spatial Pattern of Aid Allocation at the Regional Level: Evidence from 38 Sub-Saharan African Countries by Huijoo Shon, HeeRae Lee, Booyuel Kim :: SSRN

Funded by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) (2020 - 2022)

Paper in preparation for journal submission

(with Booyuel Kim, Synjoo Choi, Jinwook Shin, Sungmin Lim)

Abstract

Internalizing environmental externalities of electricity generation often fall short of the socially optimal level: residential consumers in Korea, for instance, bear less than a quarter of total environmental external cost in their electric bill. Here, we present a randomized survey experiment on 4,214 nationally representative sample of Korean electricity consumers that showed that willingness-to-pay for Climate Change & Environmental Charges can be promoted. We introduce four information strategies - one economic, one political and two psychological-based messaging. We find that providing information about external cost currently paid by consumers, which is often elusive to most consumers substantially raises consumers' willingness to pay for environmental charges - by 15% compared to the control group. The rest of the information - i) climate policy is partisan-free, ii) environmental policy can be succeeded through international cooperation, iii) cross-country comparison of climate change mitigation efforts - show small and insignificant effects. As consistent with existing findings, the political divide on climate change is attributed to the overall null-effects, while we provide new empirical evidence that such political divide can be induced by consumers' knowledge bias.

Funded by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) (2020 - 2022)

Paper in preparation for journal submission

(with Booyuel Kim, Synjoo Choi, Jinwook Shin, Sungmin Lim)

Abstract

Electricity price signaling and the resulting energy consumption in the residential sector critically hinge on consumers’ knowledge on electricity price, yet an academic consensus on a price knowledge assessment has not been reached. This paper develops a framework for constructing a comprehensive electricity price knowledge questionnaire. The framework generates the questionnaire in two-phases which measure the core and peripheral knowledge on electricity price. The first phase harnesses a functional structure of price schemes to improve its interdisciplinary, cross-country and intertemporal comparability. The second phase extends the scope of price knowledge to cover electricity ratemaking principles, which are found to be highly influential to consumer attitudes toward electricity tariffing. Based on this framework, a complete survey questionnaire is constructed for South Korea and conducted on more than 4,000 electricity consumers to show its practicability.