The Electric Gini: Income Redistribution through Energy Prices

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: LEVINSON, A. R. I. K.; SILVA, E. M. I. L. S. O. N.
• 署名单位: Georgetown University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Alberta
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200543
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 341-365
• 关键词: Efficiency; respond; CURVES

摘要

In theory, regulators concerned about inequality will deviate from efficient two-part tariffs, charging lower-than-efficient fixed monthly fees and higher-than-efficient per-kilowatt-hour prices. To quantify that relationship, we develop a measure of the redistributive extent of utility tariffs: the electric Gini. Utilities with higher electric Ginis shift more costs from households using relatively little electricity to households using more. In practice, US utilities whose ratepayers have more unequal incomes have higher electric Ginis. But electricity demand is only loosely correlated with income, which means that electricity prices are an indirect and ineffective policy for countering income inequality.