Low income energy assistance and disconnection in France

Electricite de France, the French monopoly provider of electricity, has bee n testing a number of new policy instruments to avoid disconnection among i ts low income customers. This paper uses decentralization, a common feature of social programmes, to identify the impact of Electricite Ade France's e nergy assistance programmes on the probability of disconnection for househo lds with difficulties of payment. Naive estimates of programme impact are s hown to be seriously biased.