Heterogeneous impact of low-income home energy assistance program on energy consumption behavior

This study leverages utility smart-meter data in a differences-in-difference framework to quantify the effect of low-income home energy assistance program (LIHEAP) funding on energy consumption behavior for 1,351 households in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Results reveal that LIHEAP funding leads to outcomes statistically indistinguishable from zero, although on average, we observe increases in energy consumption for homes that are electrically heated (37 kWh/month) and natural gas heated (0.30 MMBtu/month). Additionally, wide confidence intervals in most of our findings signal substantial variability in household responses to LIHEAP. Lastly, under more granular analytic conditions, outcomes show that the effect of LIHEAP funding may result in a restriction of energy consumption. Based on results, we offer two policy recommendations: (1) enhance data sharing among utilities, researchers, and LIHEAP program administrators to facilitate mechanism-specific quantitative analyses and enable cross-regional comparisons of program impact; and (2) expand LIHEAP's performance measures to include measures of energy consumption behavior.