Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T20:03:45.266Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Household fuelwood consumption in western rural China: ethnic minority families versus Han Chinese families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2020

Xiaojun Yang ,
Jun Li ,
Jintao Xu  and
Yuanyuan Yi Open the ORCID record for Yuanyuan Yi [Opens in a new window]
Xiaojun Yang
Affiliation:
School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Jun Li
Affiliation:
School of International Relations, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China School of Management, Curtin University, Bentley, ACT, Australia
Jintao Xu
Affiliation:
National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yuanyuan Yi*
Affiliation:
National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: yyyi@nsd.pku.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines ethnic differences in fuelwood consumption in rural households, using an original survey dataset from two western Chinese provinces with large ethnic minority populations. We use a Heckman two-stage selection model to explain the quantity of fuelwood consumed conditional on a decision to use fuelwood. We find that ethnic minority families are more likely than majority Han Chinese families to use fuelwood. We also find that a household's off-farm income has a stronger negative effect on the quantity of fuelwood consumed for the ethnic minority families than for the Han Chinese families. In addition, families owning a larger area of forestland are more likely to use fuelwood. Yet the quantity of fuelwood consumed, especially in ethnic minority families, does not increase with owned forestland. Finally, we find that coal, rather than electricity, is a substitute for fuelwood for residential cooking and heating.

Keywords

Chinaenergy transitionethnic groupsforestlandfuelwoodoff-farm incomeQ21Q23Q41
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 433 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alem, Y, Beyene, AD, Köhlin, G and Mekonnen, A (2016) Modelling household cooking fuel choice: a panel multinomial logit approach. Energy Economics 59, 129–137.10.1016/j.eneco.2016.06.025CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amacher, GS, Hyde, WF and Kanel, KR (1996) Household fuelwood demand and supply in Nepal's Tarai and mid-hills: choice between cash outlays and labor opportunity. World Development 24, 1725–1736.10.1016/0305-750X(96)00073-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Araujo, C, Combes, J-L and Féres, JG (2019) Determinants of Amazon deforestation: the role of off-farm income. Environment and Development Economics 24, 138–156.10.1017/S1355770X18000359CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baland, J, Bardhan, P, Das, S, Mookherjee, D and Sarkar, R (2010) The environmental impact of poverty: evidence from firewood collection in rural Nepal. Economic Development and Cultural Change 59, 23–61.10.1086/655455CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bandyopadhyay, S, Shyamsundar, P and Baccini, A (2011) Forests, biomass use and poverty in Malawi. Ecological Economics 70, 2461–2471.10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.08.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, D and Floor, W (1996) Rural energy in developing countries: a challenge for economic development. Annual Review of Energy and Environment 21, 497–530.10.1146/annurev.energy.21.1.497CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluffstone, RA (1995) The effect of labor market performance on deforestation in developing countries under open access: an example from rural Nepal. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 29, 42–63.10.1006/jeem.1995.1030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, N, Perez-Padilla, R and Albalak, R (2000) Indoor air pollution in developing countries: a major environmental and public health challenge. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78, 1078–1092.Google Scholar
Cameron, C and Miller, D (2015) A practitioner's guide to cluster-robust inference. Journal of Human Resources 50, 317–372.10.3368/jhr.50.2.317CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campos, CB, Ren, Y and Petrick, M (2016) The impact of education on income inequality between ethnic minorities and Han in China. China Economic Review 41, 253–267.10.1016/j.chieco.2016.10.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L, Heerink, N and van den Berg, M (2006) Energy consumption in rural China: a household model for three villages in Jiangxi province. Ecological Economics 58, 407–420.10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.07.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, S, Kuo, H and Chen, C (2007) The relationship between GDP and electricity consumption in 10 Asian countries. Energy Policy 35, 2611–2621.10.1016/j.enpol.2006.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Q, Yang, H, Liu, T and Zhang, L (2016) Household biomass energy choice and its policy implications on improving rural livelihoods in Sichuan, China. Energy Policy 93, 291–302.10.1016/j.enpol.2016.03.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cong, H, Zhao, L, Wang, J and Yao, Z (2017) Current situation and development demand analysis of rural energy in China. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering 33, 224–231 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Cooke, P, Hyde, W and Köhlin, G (2008) Fuelwood, forests and community management – evidence from household studies. Environment and Development Economics 13, 103–135.10.1017/S1355770X0700397XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couture, S, Garcia, S and Reynaud, A (2012) Household energy choices and fuelwood consumption: an econometric approach using French data. Energy Economics 34, 1972–1981.10.1016/j.eneco.2012.08.022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demurger, S and Fournier, M (2011) Poverty and firewood consumption: a case study of rural households in northern China. China Economic Review 22, 512–523.10.1016/j.chieco.2010.09.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, Y (2006) Educational inequality in the minority regions of present day China and suggestions for the government regarding the education policy. Frontiers of Education in China 1, 131–139.10.1007/s11516-005-0010-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, RD, Smith, KR, Zhang, J and Ma, Y (2004) Implications of changes in household stoves and fuel use in China. Energy Policy 32, 395–411.10.1016/S0301-4215(02)00309-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farsi, M, Filippini, M and Pachauri, S (2007) Fuel choices in urban Indian households. Environment and Development Economics 12, 757–774.10.1017/S1355770X07003932CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, SL (2001) Biomass-derived liquid cooking fuels for household use in rural China: potential for reducing health costs and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Energy for Sustainable Development 5, 23–30.10.1016/S0973-0826(09)60017-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafsson, B and Li, S (2003) The ethnic minority-majority income gap in rural China during transition. Economic Development and Cultural Change 51, 805–822.10.1086/377191CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, H and Wu, S (2018) Rural residential energy transition and energy consumption intensity in China. Energy Economics 74, 523–534.10.1016/j.eneco.2018.04.033CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, HY, Wu, S and Zang, ZJ (2018) Factors underlying rural household energy transition: a case study of China. Energy Policy 114, 234–244.10.1016/j.enpol.2017.11.052CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannum, E (2002) Educational stratification by ethnicity in China: enrollment and attainment in the early reform years. Demography 39, 95–117.10.1353/dem.2002.0005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hannum, E and Xie, Y (1998) Ethnic stratification in Northwest China: occupational difference between Han Chinese and national minorities in Xinjiang, 1982–1990. Demography 35, 323–333.10.2307/3004040CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasmath, R (2011) From job search to hiring and promotion: the labour market experiences of ethnic minorities in Beijing. International Labour Review 150, 189–201.10.1111/j.1564-913X.2011.00112.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckman, JJ (1979) Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica 47, 153–161.10.2307/1912352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heltberg, R (2005) Factors determining household fuel choice in Guatemala. Environment and Development Economics 10, 337–361.10.1017/S1355770X04001858CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heltberg, R, Arndt, TC and Sekhar, NU (2000) Fuelwood consumption and forest degradation: a household model for domestic energy substitution in rural India. Land Economics 76, 213–232.10.2307/3147225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosier, R and Dowd, J (1987) Household fuel choice in Zimbabwe: an empirical test of the energy ladder hypothesis. Resources and Energy 9, 347–361.10.1016/0165-0572(87)90003-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyde, WF and Köhlin, G (2000) Social forestry reconsidered. Silva Fennica 34, 285–314.10.14214/sf.632CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IEA (2017) Energy Access Outlook. Paris: IEA/OECD.Google Scholar
Jiang, L and O'Neill, BC (2004) The energy transition in rural China. International Journal of Global Energy Issues 21, 2–26.10.1504/IJGEI.2004.004691CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyeux, R and Ripple, R (2007) Household energy consumption versus income and relative standard of living: a panel approach. Energy Policy 35, 50–60.10.1016/j.enpol.2005.10.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, G (1992) The energy transition. Energy Policy 20, 116–123.10.1016/0301-4215(92)90105-BCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, HZ (2003) Economic transition and returns to education in China. Economics of Education Review 3, 317–328.10.1016/S0272-7757(02)00056-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J and Shui, B (2015) A comprehensive analysis of buildings energy efficiency policies in China: status quo and development perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production 90, 326–344.10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.061CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, G (2015) Food, eating behavior, and culture in Chinese society. Journal of Ethnic Foods 2, 195–199.10.1016/j.jef.2015.11.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, WL, Zhou, XS and Renwick, A (2019) Impact of off-farm income on household energy expenditures in China: implications for rural energy transition. Energy Policy 127, 248–258.10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masera, O, Saatkamp, B and Kammen, D (2000) From linear fuel switching to multiple cooking strategies: a critique and alternative to the energy ladder model. World Development 28, 2083–2103.10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00076-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maurer-Fazio, M (2012) Ethnic discrimination in China's internet job board labor market. IZA Journal of Migration 1, 1–24.10.1186/2193-9039-1-12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mekonnen, A and Köhlin, G (2008) Determinants of household fuel choice in major cities in Ethiopia. Discussion Paper Series No. EfD DP 08–18, Environment for Development, Gothenburg.Google Scholar
Murphy, DMA, Berazneva, J and Lee, DR (2018) Fuelwood source substitution, gender, and shadow prices in western Kenya. Environment and Development Economics 23, 655–678.10.1017/S1355770X1800027XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
NBS (National Bureau of Statistics of China) (2018) Statistical communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the 2018 National Economic and Social Development. Available at http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/201902/t20190228_1651265.html.Google Scholar
NBS (National Bureau of Statistics of China) (2019) China Energy Statistics Yearbook. Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Nurul-Fadhilah, A, Pey, T and Leng, F (2016) Ethnic differences in the food intake patterns and its associated factors of adolescents in Kelantan, Malaysia. Nutrients 8, 551–565.Google Scholar
Ouedraogo, B (2006) Household energy preferences for cooking in urban Ouagadougou. Energy Policy 34, 3787–3795.10.1016/j.enpol.2005.09.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pachauri, S (2004) An analysis of cross-sectional variations in total household energy requirements in India using micro survey data. Energy Policy 32, 1723–1735.10.1016/S0301-4215(03)00162-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, C and Macgregor, J (2009) Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia. Environment and Development Economics 14, 693–715.10.1017/S1355770X08005007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papineau, M, Aunan, K and Berntsen, T (2009) Distributional determinants of household air pollution in China. Environment and Development Economics 14, 621–639.10.1017/S1355770X0900521XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddy, BS (1995) A multilogit model for fuel shifts in the domestic sector. Energy 20, 929–936.10.1016/0360-5442(95)00044-HCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shi, X, Heerink, N and Qu, F (2009) The role of off-farm employment in the rural energy consumption transition – a village-level analysis in Jiangxi province. China Economic Review 20, 350–359.10.1016/j.chieco.2008.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiu, A and Lam, PL (2004) Electricity consumption and economic growth in China. Energy Policy 32, 47–54.10.1016/S0301-4215(02)00250-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, C, Bilsborrow, R, Jagger, P, Zhang, Q, Chen, X and Huang, Q (2018) Rural household energy use and its determinants in China: how important are influences of payment for ecosystem services vs. Other factors? Ecological Economics 145, 148–159.10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.028CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, X and Liao, H (2014) Energy poverty and solid fuels use in rural China: analysis based on national population census. Energy for Sustainable Development 23, 122–129.10.1016/j.esd.2014.08.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tian, YS (2016) China Rural energy development status and outlook in 2015. Energy China 7, 25–29.Google Scholar
Wallendorf, M and Reilly, MD (1983) Ethnic migration, assimilation, and consumption. Journal of Consumer Research 10, 292–302.10.1086/208968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, XH and Fend, ZM (1996) Survey of rural household energy consumption in China. Energy 21, 703–705.Google Scholar
Wang, R and Jiang, Z (2017) Energy consumption in China's rural areas: a study based on the village energy survey. Journal of Cleaner Production 143, 452–461.10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, XH, Li, KQ, Li, H, Bai, D and Liu, JR (2017) Research on China's rural household energy consumption – household investigation of typical counties in 8 economic zones. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 68, 28–32.Google Scholar
Wei, YM, Liao, H, Wang, K and Liang, QM (2014) China Energy Report (2014): Energy Poverty Research. Beijing: Science Press (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Wu, X and Song, X (2014) Ethnic stratification amid China's economic transition: evidence from the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. Social Science Research 44, 158–172.10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.12.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, X, Xu, J and Wang, Y (2015) Impact of tenure reform on forestland management model in western ethnic minority areas: evidence from Gansu and Yunnan province. Forestry Economics 2, 28–32 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Yang, X, Xu, J, Xu, X, Yi, Y and Hyde, WF (2017) Collective forest tenure reform and household energy consumption: a case study in Yunnan province, China. China Economic Review 60(2020), 101134. doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.12.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yao, C, Chen, C and Li, M (2012) Analysis of rural residential energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions in China. Energy Policy 41, 445–450.10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, M and Guo, F (2013) Analysis of rural residential commercial energy consumption in China. Energy 52, 222–229.10.1016/j.energy.2013.01.039CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, X and Hassen, S (2017) Household fuel choice in urban China: evidence from panel data. Environment and Development Economics 4, 1–22.Google Scholar
Zhang, J and Kotani, K (2012) The determinants of household energy demand in rural Beijing: can environmentally friendly technologies be effective? Energy Economics 34, 381–388.Google Scholar
Zhang, J and Smith, K (2007) Household air pollution from coal and biomass fuels in China: measurements, health impacts, and interventions. Environmental Health Perspectives 115, 848–855.10.1289/ehp.9479CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, LX, Yang, ZF, Chen, B, Chen, GQ and Zhang, YQ (2009) Temporal and spatial variations of energy consumption in rural China. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation 14, 4022–4031.10.1016/j.cnsns.2008.04.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, L, Dong, Y, Liu, C and Ba, Y (2018) Off-farm employment over the past four decades in rural China. China Agricultural Economic Review 10, 190–214.10.1108/CAER-11-2017-0212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, S and Teng, F (2013) Estimation of urban residential electricity demand in China using household survey data. Energy Policy 61, 394–402.10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.092CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Z, Wu, W, Chen, Q and Chen, S (2008) Study on sustainable development of rural household energy in northern China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12, 2227–2239.10.1016/j.rser.2007.03.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zou, B and Luo, B (2019) Rural household energy consumption characteristics and determinants in China. Energy 182, 814–823.10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.048CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Yang et al. supplementary material

Yang et al. supplementary material

Download Yang et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 555.9 KB