000 01895cam a2200205 4500500
005 20251109010614.0
041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aSerletis, Apostolos
_eauthor
700 1 0 _aXu, Libo
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aThe Welfare Costs of Energy Inflation
260 _c2028.
500 _a30
520 _aEnergy price fluctuations affect the level of economic activity through their effects on bank balance sheets, credit spreads, and financial markets. In this paper we use the consumer surplus approach to investigate the welfare costs of energy price increases. The welfare cost is defined as the change in the area under the energy demand curve corresponding to the change in the consumption of the energy good in question following a change in its price. We use flexible energy demand functions, based on the dual approach to demand system generation, explicitly considering the demand interactions among the energy goods. We find that the energy demand functions are stable and predictable and suggest less substitutable energy demand. They indicate that green policies based on price policies may not be effective in reducing non-green energy usage. We also find that the welfare cost of energy inflation is small and raise questions about government income and price support measures designed to lower the price of energy. We argue that they reduce the incentives to reduce the use of fossil-based energy, lead to larger budget deficits, and constrain the ability of central banks to hit their inflation targets. JEL classification: C22, C32, C51, E41, E42, E52.
690 _aEnergy prices.
690 _aFlexible functional forms
690 _aNormalized Quadratic demand system
786 0 _nFinance | Pub. anticipées | 2028-12-16 | p. I46-XVII | 0752-6180
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-finance-2025-0-page-I46?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080
999 _c1561856
_d1561856