Rapid: The Effects of COVID-19 on Household Energy Insecurity

本项目研究新冠肺炎疫情对美国低收入家庭能源不安全的经济和社会影响。能源不安全，即家庭无法支付能源账单，是低收入美国人以及其他群体面临的一个重大问题。例如，2015年，约有1400万户家庭报告说他们没有支付水电费；1700万人收到了公用事业公司的断电通知；有200万人失去了电力供应。当家庭面临能源不安全时，居民可能会采取风险应对策略，包括财务决策和危险的家庭供暖行为。这些家庭还可能不得不在能源与食品、保健服务或其他必需品之间做出艰难的权衡。由于新冠疫情造成的经济状况，家庭能源不安全问题可能会加剧。该项目的结果包括关于脆弱的美国家庭的能源不安全程度的直接突出信息，并揭示了受影响的人们通过正式的政府援助计划、社会网络和联系以及其他策略应对能源成本的方式。研究结果为正在设计和实施COVID-19应对措施的政策制定者、公用事业和电力供应商、非营利组织领导人以及其他利益相关者提供了关键信息。研究人员对美国低收入家庭（即收入等于或低于联邦贫困线的200%）进行了四波小组调查，以检查能源不安全的普遍性，以及人们用来应对COVID-19大流行带来的额外物质困难的策略。在流离失所的早期阶段，对具有全国代表性的低收入家庭样本进行了小组调查，然后在随后的12个月内对研究参与者进行了三次重新访谈。主要目标是衡量和评估：1)对能源不安全更敏感的家庭是否已经变得更糟，以及随着经济流离失所的继续，情况是否会在随后的时期继续恶化；2)能够获得经济援助计划和社交网络的家庭比那些无法获得的家庭境况更好；(3)物质困难、能源不安全状况更严重的家庭，其应对策略更具风险性；4)获得救济计划的家庭不太可能做出有风险的财务和行为决定。该项目为美国的能源不安全提供了新的理论和实证见解，建立在研究团队之前对脆弱性范围图框架的改编基础上，以概念化家庭能源不安全。这一框架在危机期间家庭决策研究的见解的基础上，提供了关于政府应对COVID-19造成的经济流离失所如何影响家庭能源不安全的理论依据假设。为该项目设计的调查将是能源不安全文献中的第一个小组研究，使研究人员能够在个人层面上测量关键概念，并在不安全可能因突然的物质困难而放大的时期捕获基线条件。此外，调查还考虑到对政策引起的物质困难的各种敏感性，以及对正式和非正式应对战略的衡量。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on energy insecurity among low-income U.S. households. Energy insecurity, which is when a household is unable to pay its energy bills, is a significant problem for low-income Americans, among other groups. In 2015, for example, approximately 14 million households reported that they had unpaid utility bills; 17 million had received a disconnect notice from a utility company; and 2 million were disconnected from the electric grid. When a household faces energy insecurity, the residents may engage in risky coping strategies, including financial decisions and dangerous household heating behaviors. Such households may also have to make difficult tradeoffs between energy and food, health services, or other necessities. The problem of household energy insecurity is likely to grow due to the economic conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this project include immediately salient information about the extent of energy insecurity among vulnerable U.S. households and reveal the ways in which affected people are coping with their energy costs through formal government assistance programs, social networks and connections, and other strategies. The results provide critical information to policymakers, utilities and electricity providers, nonprofit leaders, and other stakeholders that are designing and implementing the response to COVID-19. The researchers administer a four-wave panel survey of low-income U.S. households (i.e., income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line) to examine the prevalence of energy insecurity and the strategies that people are using to cope with additional material hardship generated by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel survey of a nationally-representative sample of low-income households begin during the early stages of displacement, and then re-interview study participants three times over the succeeding 12 months. The main objectives are to measure and evaluate whether: 1) households that are more sensitive to energy insecurity are already worse off, and if matters continue to worsen in subsequent periods as economic displacement continues; 2) households able to access financial assistance programs and social networks are better off than those that cannot; 3) households that suffer material hardship, and experience more severe energy insecurity, adopt more risky coping strategies; and 4) households with access to relief programs are less likely to cope through risky financial and behavioral decisions. The project provides new theoretical and empirical insights into energy insecurity in the U.S., building on the research team’s previous adaptation of the Vulnerability Scoping Diagram framework to conceptualize household energy insecurity. This framework, enhanced by insights from research on household decision-making during crises, provides theoretically-informed hypotheses about how household energy insecurity is likely to be affected by the economic displacement caused by the government response to COVID-19. The survey designed for this project will be the first panel study in the energy insecurity literature, enabling the researchers to measure key concepts over time at the individual level and capture baseline conditions during a period when insecurity is likely to be amplified by sudden material hardship. Moreover, the survey provides for the consideration of numerous types of sensitivity to policy-induced material hardship as well as measurement of both formal and informal coping strategies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.