Evaluating energy poverty in Spain. Policy implications

Abstract

The methodologies and indicators that have been proposed in the literature to measure energy poverty are quite diverse. Some are subjective approaches based on personal or third parties perceptions of affordable warmth at home; whereas others calculate objective indicators. Although these different pro- posals have already been theoretically criticized, an empirical comparative analysis that measures in a real case study the practical impact of the theoretical limitations detected for the dfferent indicators was still pending. Thus the goal of this paper is to contribute to this crucial debate by comparing critically the different approaches used to measure energy poverty in a real case (Spain), and to propose an indicator that might be able to overcome some of the major problems that affect current proposals.