| Abstract [eng] |
Recently, energy poverty has become an increasingly relevant problem in the European Union and Lithuania. Rising energy prices, geopolitical conflicts, changes in the labour market and climate change politicies have affected households‘ ability to ensure access to essential energy services. Energy poverty has negative impacts on quality of life, economic vulnerability and social exclusion, therefore it is important to assess how macroeconomic factors influence the indicators of this phenomenon. The object of this research is energy poverty. This study includes two different indicators describing energy poverty. The aim of the thesis is to assess the impact of macroeconomic factors on the dynamics of energy poverty by comparing two energy poverty indicators: the share of people unable to keep their homes adequately warm and arrears on utility bills. The study applies the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and Granger causality test, which allowed the evaluation of the relationships between the selected energy poverty indicators and the macroeconomic factors demonstrating the strongest causal relationship. The comparison of ARDL models showed that the model in which the dependent variable is the share of people unable to keep their homes adequately warm demonstrates better explanatory power and statistical significance than the model in which the dependent variable is arrears on utility bills. The results of the Granger causality test revealed short-term relationships between the analysed variables. The obtained results confirmed that energy poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, therefore, it is appropriate to apply different indicators and a comprehensive approach when assessing this issue. |
