Examining the relationship between eco-efficiency and energy poverty: a stochastic frontier models approach

ENUsing a stochastic frontier analysis log-linear function and comparable data for 26 economies over the 2008–2020 period, the relationship between selected socioeconomic indicators of energy poverty and the eco-efficiency measures for a sample of European countries, is examined. Concerning selected energy poverty determinants, the main empirical findings derived from the estimations of a time-varying fixed-effects model, a true random-effects model and an inefficiency effects model under truncated-normal, point to a significant interaction between those same socioeconomic determinants and relevant measures of eco-efficiency. Thus, we can consider the results of the estimated regression frontiers of inefficiency effects model (truncated-normal), that in the period of the first Kyoto commitment (2008–2012), Sweden, Hungary, France, Latvia and Lithuania stand out in the TOP5 in terms of technical eco-efficiency, while in the second Kyoto period 2013–2018 in this TOP5, we have the same economies occupying the same position in the ranking, except the position of Lithuania that no longer belongs, being substituted in its position by Slovenia. While additional research would help disentangle this relationship, important socioeconomic and environmental policy implications can be drawn from our findings. [From the publication]