This study incorporates household energy needs into Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) based poverty measures to examine energy poverty in South Africa. Our household-specific energy poverty line is founded on the application of semiparametric estimation of energy expenditure shares that are used to determine a household energy equivalence scale and, thus, the household specific required energy consumption level or poverty line. We find that headcount energy poverty is extensive, exceeding 50%, as is the gap and the severity of energy poverty. Decomposition results suggest that energy poverty rates decrease with income, and lower income groups contribute more to total poverty than higher income groups across all the three poverty indexes. Although our poverty rates are determined by the choices we have made, the model is flexible enough to allow for assumptions that differ from ours, and we provide a useful sensitivity analysis for further understanding.

本研究将家庭能源需求纳入基于 Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) 的贫困衡量标准，以研究南非的能源贫困。我们的家庭特定能源贫困线基于能源支出份额的半参数估计的应用，用于确定家庭能源当量尺度，从而确定家庭特定的所需能源消耗水平或贫困线。我们发现能源贫困人口数量广泛，超过 50%，能源贫困的差距和严重程度也是如此。分解结果表明，能源贫困率随收入下降，在所有三个贫困指数中，低收入群体对总贫困的贡献大于高收入群体。虽然我们的贫困率取决于我们所做的选择，