Temperature shocks and multidimensional energy poverty
Evidence from Malawi
Abstract
This paper contributes to the emerging literature on the relationship between temperature shocks and household energy poverty by providing the first empirical evidence of this link in a low-income country. Using four waves of Malawi's Integrated Household Panel Survey data from the World Bank Microdata Library, matched with weather data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, this paper employs a binning approach to capture temperature shocks and measures energy poverty multidimensionally. The results from a fixed effects panel model, robust to several sensitivity checks, indicate that temperature shocks have a positive and statistically significant impact on energy poverty. Specifically, each additional day of extreme temperatures (≥31°C) increases the probability of household energy poverty by 0.9 percentage points. The paper also explores the mediating role of household health and income, and finds that household health is a key channel through which temperature shocks influence energy poverty.
Details
- Organisation(s)
-
Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- Energy economics
- Volume
- 152
- ISSN
- 0140-9883
- Publication date
- 12.2025
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics, General Energy
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108994 (Access:
Open
)
