An Investigation of Socio-Cultural Factors Affecting the Household Energy Consumption after the Implementation of Targeted Subsidies Law

Among the economical sectors of the country, residential sector is the largest final consumer of energy and unlike the other sectors, its energy intensity is upward. In this regard, targeted subsidies law is a basic measure by the ninth government which began by the president’s command since 2010 despite the opposition of a number of economists and MPs with the way of its implementation that was a price reform (rising) plan to energy carriers with a focus to reduce energy consumption in all consumer sectors, especially residential sector. The residential sector consists of different groups regarding economic, social and cultural features and it seems that identical changes of prices of gas and electricity for all these groups as result of targeted subsidies law implementation have different effects on the level of energy consumption in these groups. Therefore, after nearly three years of implementation of the law and on the verge of implementation of the second phase, the study is to investigate the effects of social (Social-Economical Status) and cultural (environmental culture) features on the level of change in gas and electricity consumption of households in Esfahan city after the implementation of targeted subsidies law.
Regarding the purpose, the study is practical and regarding the nature and methods, it is descriptive-analysis and casual-comparative (post-event). The data for investigating the research hypotheses are collected by field method. The study population of the research is all the households living in all fourteen districts of Esfahan municipality and 145 households were selected from the 492767 households living in Esfahan city in 2011 by the use of Cochran formula (confidence level of 90 percent) and the data were collected by referring to them using simple random sampling. In order to analyze the effects of the variables, namely Social-Economical Status and environmental culture of the households, on the level of change in gas and electricity consumption after the implementation of targeted subsidies law, we used multivariate regression model of binomial logistics. SPSS software was also used to do the calculation and achieving the results.
Discussion of Results & The results of the research showed that: 1- Social-Economical Status of Esfahan households did not have a significant effect on reducing the consumption of gas and electricity after the implementation of targeted subsidies law. 2- The effects of environmental culture of Esfahan households on the possibility of gas and electricity energy saving on both levels (low and average) have been negative.
In order to justify the lack of any significant relationship between Social-Economical Status Esfahan households and reducing gas and electricity consumption, the reasons are presented as follows in two divisions of sociological and economic fields:A) Sociological analysis: For many years, Social-Economical Status has been a powerful and significant variable in the area of social sciences which is used to explain a host of social attitudes and behaviors. But the lack of relationship between this variable and dependent variables of the research, despite the research hypothesis on the relationship between these two variables, is theoretically very important for the society that is studied; Therefore, it is likely that the views of some sociologists such as Veblen, Weber and Bourdieu who believe in social class life and also believe that socio-economic class factor affects the formation of lifestyle, have been fading away and lack explanatory ability. On the other hand, the approach of intellectuals such as Anthony Giddens, Mike Featherstone and Ulrich Beck is able to analyze the case in a better way. According to the views of these sociologists, social classes do not determine the selective consumption patterns of people so that it is not possible to separate the lifestyles according to the social classes and the lifestyles break boundaries of social class differentiations. In fact, lifestyle is neither a social class concept nor a tool for distinction, but it is offered as a new concept against the social class. From such a viewpoint, in modern societies similar consumption behaviors are observed among people from different social classes which show the class integration of lifestyles. In other words, we deal with a lifestyle which does not particularly belong to a group or a class, but it is only significant in the cultural changes of modernity and the growth of consumerism culture.
B) Economic Analysis: According to economic studies on this subject, justifications for the lack of relationship can be outlined as follows: 1- Inelasticity of energy demand (consumption) for residential sector against the price changes - even in long term - and the necessity of energy commodity in the households carts. 2- Limitations to find alternatives for energy consumption such as gas and electricity for the households: the reason is the different technologies for using gas, electricity and other types of energy in household appliances. Even if the alternatives are technically possible, it is not economical for the consumers to change their consumption patterns and their energy appliances for slight fluctuations in energy prices (especially knowing that the fluctuations are very slight on the basis of real prices). 3- Since gas and electricity are necessary commodities for residential sector, this sector at least has to use them for heat, light, cooking, etc. In most cases, reducing the consumption of these two energy carriers leads to nothing but lowering the level of well-being and as a result causing numerous social, cultural and sanitary abnormalities and increasing discontent in the society. Therefore, it is natural that energy consumption in household sector is not a function of its price. 4- Energy consumption in residential sector is a function of its previous patterns which means that the consumers of this sector act according to their consumption habits. 5- Regarding the electricity, it can be said that refrigerators, freezers, coolers and TV sets share the greater part of electricity consumption in households which includes 60% of the total energy consumption by the households. It seems that despite rising electricity price after implementation of the law, the household consumer still uses the same electrical appliances; because most families - especially in inflation condition after implementation of the law - can not afford to buy energy-saving modern appliances. 6- For wealthy households who can afford to buy energy-saving appliances it is not economical to change their consumption patterns and appliances for the slight fluctuations in the price of gas and electricity (especially in inflation condition after implementation of the law). 7- Although at the beginning of targeted subsidies law implementation, the government attempted to increase the nominal prices of gas and electricity of the residential sector, only after two months the real price of electricity and after four months the real price of gas have been declining due to fixing the nominal prices of these two energy carriers after the beginning of the plan and ignoring the consumer price index while pricing these two energy carriers.
In order to explain the negative effect of households environmental culture on energy consumption reduction it can be argued that households with higher cultures before the implementation of targeted subsidies law had more thrifty behaviors comparing to households from lower cultures; therefore, there is less possibility for them to save energy under the law implementation.
It seems that price changing of gas and electricity is not an appropriate leverage to reform energy consumption pattern (gas and electricity) of residential sector; but energy saving in this sector by logical use of energy through creating the consumption culture alongside price changing of energy carriers can have a significant effect on consumption control in this section.