Making ends meet: Actual versus potential joint affordability of utility services

摘要

This paper analyses the joint affordability of a set of essential services (water, energy, and communications). To overcome the limitations of analyses based on actual expenditures, the paper addresses potential affordability, advancing a method to assess it empirically. It also investigates beyond national averages by using micro economic data from the 2015/2016 Portuguese Household Budget Survey. The disaggregated analysis reveals disparities, with poorer and larger families presenting higher burdens of utility expenditures. A sensitivity analysis reveals that at least 9% of households face actual affordability problems. Potential affordability results suggest the existence of under-consumption within the first two expenditure quintiles.