WHO GAINED BENEFIT FROM THE ITALIAN “SUPERBONUS 110%” FOR THE ENERGY RETROFITTING OF DWELLINGS? A QUESTION OF GREEN TRANSITION, INEQUALITIES AND POLICY TARGETING.

This master’s thesis is based on a wide range of academic and scholarly literature that studied the issues of energy poverty in the European Union together with the question of granting an equal access of the population to the policy measures put in place for the green transition of the housing stock. The main focus of the research is the Italian fiscal incentives put in place since 2007 for the energy retrofitting and the renovation of residential buildings in the form of tax credit schemes, and in particular the “Superbonus 110%” introduced in 2020 and terminated in 2024. This research originates from a very clear statement. While the Superbonus 110% had made available substantial financial resources for incentivising the energy retrofitting of buildings, and the legislation was formulated so to make the tax credit scheme more accessible and convenient for low-income households, it remained a regressive measure to the benefit of high-income households. The objectives of the research were developed on three levels: firstly, we wanted to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the beneficiaries of the Superbonus 110% in terms of income, occupation, real estate, residence and education. Secondly, where it was possible, we wanted to compare the beneficiaries of the Superbonus as described above with those of earlier fiscal incentives of the same kind (i.e. the Ecobonus). Finally, our more theoretical aim was to verify whether the Superbonus could be defined as a policy failure because of the beneficiaries it actually served by comparing the empirical data analysed with the relevant policy theory (target population, energy poverty, policy failure). From there, we developed our research questions: 1) How are the beneficiaries of the Superbonus distributed across relevant social, economic, and organisational categories (income, occupation, real estate, residence, education)? What differences do emerge with the beneficiaries of earlier fiscal incentives for dwelling renovation and energy efficiency of buildings? 2) Does the Superbonus represent a policy failure because of its target population? To answer such questions, we employed the public dataset provided by Banca d’Italia in the 2022 “Surbey on Household Income and Wealth”. The results show that our hypotheses were essentially confirmed, since the beneficiary population of the Superbonus is characterised by a significant difference in terms of income, wealth, and real estate value. Basing on this, we lastly discussed the appropriateness of the policy targeting that featured the Superbonus 110%.