Health and Housing Energy Expenditures: A Two-Part Model Approach

Abstract

Interest in the interaction between energy and health within the built environment has been increasing in recent years, in the context of sustainable development. However, in order to promote health and wellbeing across all ages it is necessary to have a better understanding of the association between health and energy at household level. This study contributes to this debate by addressing the case of Portugal using data from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) microdata database. A two-part model is applied to estimate health expenditures based on energy-related expenditures, as well as socioeconomic variables. Additional statistical methods are used to enhance the perception of relevant predictors for health expenditures. Our findings suggest that given the high significance and coefficient value, energy expenditure is a relevant explanatory variable for health expenditures. This result is further validated by a dominance analysis ranking. Moreover, the results show that health gains and medical cost reductions can be a key factor to consider on the assessment of the economic viability of energy efficiency projects in buildings. This is particularly relevant for the older and low-income segments of the population.

Energy Poverty and Health Care Expenditures: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies

“…Different from other EP measures, households in EP5 (meaning those using biomass as their main energy source) are significantly associated with a higher probability of having total, OOP and other health care expenditures but not with health care cost burden conditional on having any expenditures (Table A4). This finding is consistent with Lima et al (2021), who found that the use of and exposure to liquid 13 and solid fuels contribute to a higher probability of incurring health care expenditures.…”

“…Liquid fuels include domestic heating and lighting oil; such fuels are carbon-intensive energy alternatives similar to solid fuels(Lima et al, 2021).…”

Special Issue on “Renewable Energy Technologies and Systems: Technical, Environmental, Economic, Social, and Cultural Challenges”

“…Lima et al [11] shed new light on the association between health and energy use at the household level for the Portuguese case, using data from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) database. The authors used a two-part model to estimate health expenditures based on energy-related expenditures, controlling for other socioeconomic variables.…”