GROSS INLAND ENERGY CONSUMPTION INEQUALITY IN EUROPE: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

Abstract

This paper analyses the gross inland energy consumption (EC) in the European Union countries (EU-15) over the period 2005-2014. The standard tools in the measurement of income inequality such as Lorenz curves, Gini index, Generalized Entropy indices and Atkinson ones are applied. Our empirical results, obtained through the decomposition of the generalized entropy indices, confirm that there are a small inward shift in the corresponding Lorenz curves, that the inequality distribution of EC across the EU-15 countries has decreased (the Gini coefficient falls from 44,27% in 2005 to 42,16% in 2014) and there are huge differences among the countries’ clusters: Mediterranean, Continental, Nordic and Anglo-Saxon. This paper makes a good contribution to knowledge since it uses a very up-to-dated database (Eurostat) and fills a gap in the literature.

Keywords

• Energy consumption
• inequality measures
• Lorenz curves
• EU-15.