Distributional and climate implications of policy responses to energy price shocks

Abstract

Which households are most affected by energy price shocks? How do interventions in energy markets affect these patterns? To investigate these questions, this paper introduces a measurement framework that leverages granular property-level data representing more than 50% of the English and Welsh housing stock. This framework will form the basis for current and future studies on the heterogeneous effects of the energy crisis more broadly. We find that the energy price shock has a more pronounced effect on relatively more affluent areas where energy use is higher at baseline. We document that commonly used untargeted interventions in energy markets significantly weaken market price signals for able-to-pay households. Alternative, more targeted policies are cheaper, easily implementable, and could better align energy saving incentives.