Cost Liability and Residential Space Heating Expenditures of Welfare Recipients in Germany

Arbeitspapier

Within the German welfare system, heating expenditures of recipients are in general fully covered by the government. This paper empirically tests for the hypothesis that households receiving welfare payments turn to over consumption of residential space heating. We use microdata from two different data sources to explore whether conditional heating expenditures of these households significantly differ from those of other households. Our empirical findings suggest that even when controlling for a range of other factors this is indeed the case as heating expenditures lie about 10 percent above those of other households. These results are fairly robust to sensitivity analyses. Our results imply that there is potential scope for cost savings if this policy is changed.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 31

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies ; Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices ; Energy: Government Policy
• Subject: Social welfare ; Germany ; Space heating ; Economic incentives

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Rehdanz, Katrin ; Stöwhase, Sven
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/150580
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET