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

Rapid：COVID-19 对家庭能源不安全的影响

基本信息

批准号：
2029684
负责人：
David Konisky
金额：
$ 19.17万
依托单位：
Indiana University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-07-15 至 2022-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2029684&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Rapid Effects COVID 19 Household

项目摘要

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.

该项目研究了COVID-19大流行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，即一个家庭无法支付能源账单，是低收入美国人和其他群体的一个重大问题。例如，2015年，约有1400万家庭报告说他们没有支付水电费; 1700万家庭收到了公用事业公司的断电通知; 200万家庭与电网断开连接。当一个家庭面临能源不安全时，居民可能会采取危险的应对策略，包括财务决策和危险的家庭取暖行为。这些家庭还可能不得不在能源和食品、医疗服务或其他必需品之间做出艰难的权衡。由于COVID-19疫情造成的经济状况，家庭能源不安全的问题可能会加剧。该项目的结果包括关于美国弱势家庭能源不安全程度的即时显著信息，并揭示了受影响的人们通过正式的政府援助计划，社交网络和联系以及其他策略应对能源成本的方式。这些结果为政策制定者、公用事业和电力供应商、非营利组织领导者以及正在设计和实施COVID-19应对措施的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进行了四波小组调查（即，收入等于或低于联邦贫困线的200%），以审视能源不安全的普遍程度，以及人们为科普COVID-19疫情而产生的额外物质困难而采取的策略。小组调查对全国有代表性的低收入家庭进行抽样调查，开始于流离失所的早期阶段，然后在随后的12个月里对研究参与者进行三次重新访谈。主要目标是衡量和评估：1）对能源不安全更敏感的家庭的状况是否已经恶化，以及随着经济流离失所的持续，情况是否在随后的时期继续恶化; 2）能够获得财政援助计划和社会网络的家庭比那些不能获得财政援助计划和社会网络的家庭的状况更好; 3）遭受物质困难和经历更严重的能源不安全的家庭，采取更危险的应对策略; 4）获得救济方案的家庭不太可能通过冒险的财务和行为决定来科普。该项目为美国的能源不安全提供了新的理论和经验见解，建立在研究小组以前对脆弱性范围图框架的适应基础上，以概念化家庭能源不安全。这一框架得到了对危机期间家庭决策研究的深入了解，提供了关于家庭能源不安全可能如何受到政府应对COVID-19造成的经济流离失所影响的理论假设。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衡量一段时间内的关键概念，并在突然的物质困难可能加剧不安全的时期掌握基线条件。此外，该调查还考虑了对政策引起的物质困难的多种类型的敏感性，以及对正式和非正式应对策略的衡量。该奖项反映了NSF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。