Аннотация:
In this study, we analyzed the impact of government regulatory institutions on households’
natural gas use behavior and suggested that the conventional view of natural gas as a social utility
is inappropriate. Pursuing this goal, we applied correlation analysis, regression analysis and the
Granger causality test to assess the statistically significant impact of particular factors (environmental
temperature, price and tariff on natural gas) on household gas consumption. Our study was based
on the data on household gas consumption in 2019–2022. Ultimately, the lowest rate of influence
was recorded by the Granger causality test (2.47%), compared to 6.88% in the test for the significance
of the correlation coefficient and 9.23% in the t-test for the statistical significance of the regression
coefficients. One has to note that the Granger causality test used in our study is considered the most
sensitive model for analyzing economic data. Using statistical methods, we concluded that regulatory
factors have a negligible impact on the volume of natural gas consumption by households. Our
results suggest that the Ukrainian regulatory authorities should be cautious about using non-market
mechanisms, such as price caps, in the energy sector.
