IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v125y2019icp181-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information leverage: The adoption of clean cooking fuel in Bhutan

Author

Listed:
  • Dendup, Ngawang
  • Arimura, Toshi H.

Abstract

The outcome of household choice depends on the private information available to an agent, particularly in terms of costs and benefits. This study examines the role of information in the adoption of clean cooking fuel in Bhutan. We use a rural subsample of nationally representative data from the 2012 Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS) conducted in all twenty districts. We estimate a bivariate probit model to control for the potentially endogenous information variable. The results indicate that households that have access to information are approximately 39% more likely to adopt clean cooking fuel. Similarly, households are 49% less likely to adopt dirty fuel (firewood) when exposed to information. Other factors such as education, the electricity supply, access to liquidity and the distance to the market are important factors that contribute to adopting clean cooking fuel. The results also show that the effect of information varies depending on the level of education of the household heads, thus highlighting the importance of accounting for the level of education of information recipients when designing a similar information provision.

Suggested Citation

  • Dendup, Ngawang & Arimura, Toshi H., 2019. "Information leverage: The adoption of clean cooking fuel in Bhutan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 181-195.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:181-195
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.10.054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518307092
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.10.054?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo & Pachauri, Shonali, 2007. "Fuel choices in urban Indian households," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(6), pages 757-774, December.
    2. Alberto Chong & Eliana La Ferrara, 2009. "Television and Divorce: Evidence from Brazilian Novelas," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 458-468, 04-05.
    3. Mani Nepal & Apsara Nepal & Kristin Grimsurd, "undated". "Unbelievable but True -- Improved cook-stoves are not helpful in reducing firewood demand in Nepal," Working papers 51, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    4. Farré, Lídia & Fasani, Francesco, 2013. "Media exposure and internal migration — Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 48-61.
    5. Robert Jensen & Emily Oster, 2009. "The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1057-1094.
    6. Chen, Le & Heerink, Nico & van den Berg, Marrit, 2006. "Energy consumption in rural China: A household model for three villages in Jiangxi Province," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 407-420, June.
    7. Benjamin A. Olken, 2009. "Do Television and Radio Destroy Social Capital? Evidence from Indonesian Villages," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-33, October.
    8. Marc Jeuland & Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & Randall Bluffstone, 2015. "The Economics of Household Air Pollution," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 81-108, October.
    9. Alberto Chong & Eliana La Ferrara, 2009. "Television and Divorce: Evidence from Brazilian Novelas," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 458-468, 04-05.
    10. Alem, Yonas & Beyene, Abebe D. & Köhlin, Gunnar & Mekonnen, Alemu, 2016. "Modeling household cooking fuel choice: A panel multinomial logit approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 129-137.
    11. Rema Hanna & Paulina Oliva, 2015. "Moving Up the Energy Ladder: The Effect of an Increase in Economic Well-Being on the Fuel Consumption Choices of the Poor in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 242-246, May.
    12. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    13. Jyotsna Jalan & E. Somanathan & Saraswata Choudhuri, "undated". "Awareness and the Demand for Environmental Quality: Drinking Water in Urban India," Working papers 32, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    14. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter, 2016. "Household energy choice and consumption intensity: Empirical evidence from Bhutan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 993-1009.
    15. Esther Duflo & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 815-842.
    16. Kavi Kumar, K.S. & Viswanathan, Brinda, 2007. "Changing structure of income indoor air pollution relationship in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5496-5504, November.
    17. Katrina Jessoe & David Rapson, 2014. "Knowledge Is (Less) Power: Experimental Evidence from Residential Energy Use," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1417-1438, April.
    18. Susan Godlonton & Rebecca L. Thornton, 2013. "Learning from Others' HIV Testing: Updating Beliefs and Responding to Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 439-444, May.
    19. Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Michael Kremer, 2015. "Education, HIV, and Early Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(9), pages 2757-2797, September.
    20. Jalan, Jyotsna & Somanathan, E. & Chaudhuri, Saraswata, 2009. "Awareness and the demand for environmental quality: survey evidence on drinking water in urban India," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 665-692, December.
    21. Israel, Debra, 2002. "Fuel Choice in Developing Countries: Evidence from Bolivia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 865-890, July.
    22. Kumar, Santosh & Rauniyar, Ganesh, 2011. "Is electrification welfare improving?: non-experimental evidence from rural Bhutan," MPRA Paper 31482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Heltberg, Rasmus, 2005. "Factors determining household fuel choice in Guatemala," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 337-361, June.
    24. Rasmus Heltberg & Thomas Channing Arndt & Nagothu Udaya Sekhar, 2000. "Fuelwood Consumption and Forest Degradation: A Household Model for Domestic Energy Substitution in Rural India," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(2), pages 213-232.
    25. Pascaline Dupas, 2009. "What Matters (and What Does Not) in Households' Decision to Invest in Malaria Prevention?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 224-230, May.
    26. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Das, Sukanya & De Groote, Hugo & Behera, Bhagirath, 2014. "Determinants of household energy use in Bhutan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 661-672.
    27. Barnwal, Prabhat & van Geen, Alexander & von der Goltz, Jan & Singh, Chander Kumar, 2017. "Demand for environmental quality information and household response: Evidence from well-water arsenic testing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 160-192.
    28. E. Somanathan, 2010. "Effects of Information on Environmental Quality in Developing Countries," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(2), pages 275-292, Summer.
    29. Nepal, Mani & Nepal, Apsara & Grimsrud, Kristine, 2011. "Unbelievable but improved cookstoves are not helpful in reducing firewood demand in Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, February.
    30. Smith, Kirk R. & Sagar, Ambuj, 2014. "Making the clean available: Escaping India’s Chulha Trap," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 410-414.
    31. Julio J. Elias & Nicola Lacetera & Mario Macis, 2015. "Sacred Values? The Effect of Information on Attitudes toward Payments for Human Organs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 361-365, May.
    32. Steven Tadelis & Florian Zettelmeyer, 2015. "Information Disclosure as a Matching Mechanism: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(2), pages 886-905, February.
    33. Council on Food Agricultural and Resource Economics, C-FARE, 2016. "2015 Annual Report," C-FARE Reports 260839, Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE).
    34. Malla, Min Bikram & Bruce, Nigel & Bates, Elizabeth & Rehfuess, Eva, 2011. "Applying global cost-benefit analysis methods to indoor air pollution mitigation interventions in Nepal, Kenya and Sudan: Insights and challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7518-7529.
    35. John H. Y. Edwards & Christian Langpap, 2005. "Startup Costs and the Decision to Switch from Firewood to Gas Fuel," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(4).
    36. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ngawang Dendup, 2021. "Returns to Grid Electricity on Firewood Consumption and Mechanism," Working Papers 2109, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    2. Adjei-Mantey, Kwame & Takeuchi, Kenji & Quartey, Peter, 2021. "Impact of LPG promotion program in Ghana: The role of distance to refill," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Chattopadhyay, Mriduchhanda & Arimura, Toshi H. & Katayama, Hajime & Sakudo, Mari & Yokoo, Hide-Fumi, 2021. "Subjective probabilistic expectations, household air pollution, and health: Evidence from cooking fuel use patterns in West Bengal, India," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Frank Adusah-Poku & Samuel Adams & Kwame Adjei-Mantey, 2023. "Does the gender of the household head affect household energy choice in Ghana? An empirical analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6049-6070, July.
    5. Totouom, Armand, 2024. "Women's decision-making power and the adoption of liquefied petroleum gas for cooking in Cameroon," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    6. Philbert Mperejekumana & Huan Li & Rucong Wu & Jiaxin Lu & Obid Tursunov & Hussien Elshareef & Mohamed S. Gaballah & Nsengiyumva Jean Nepo & Yuguang Zhou & Renjie Dong, 2021. "Determinants of Household Energy Choice for Cooking in Northern Sudan: A Multinomial Logit Estimation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Yajima, Naonari & Arimura, Toshi H., 2022. "Promoting energy efficiency in Japanese manufacturing industry through energy audits: Role of information provision, disclosure, target setting, inspection, reward, and organizational structure," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    8. Bharadwaj, Bishal & Subedi, Mukti Nath & Malakar, Yuwan & Ashworth, Peta, 2023. "Low-capacity decentralized electricity systems limit the adoption of electronic appliances in rural Nepal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    9. Akter, Sonia & Mathew, Nikhitha Mary & Fila, Marian Edward, 2023. "The impact of an improvement in the quality and reliability of rural residential electricity supply on clean cooking fuel adoption: Evidence from six energy poor Indian states," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    10. Jabeen, Gul & Yan, Qingyou & Ahmad, Munir & Fatima, Nousheen & Jabeen, Maria & Li, Heng & Qamar, Shoaib, 2020. "Household-based critical influence factors of biogas generation technology utilization: A case of Punjab province of Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 650-660.
    11. Dendup, Ngawang, 2022. "Returns to grid electricity on firewood and kerosene: Mechanism," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muller, Christophe & Yan, Huijie, 2018. "Household fuel use in developing countries: Review of theory and evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 429-439.
    2. Chattopadhyay, Mriduchhanda & Arimura, Toshi H. & Katayama, Hajime & Sakudo, Mari & Yokoo, Hide-Fumi, 2021. "Subjective probabilistic expectations, household air pollution, and health: Evidence from cooking fuel use patterns in West Bengal, India," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Kohlin, Gunnar & Sills, Erin O. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Wilfong, Christopher, 2011. "Energy, gender and development: what are the linkages ? where is the evidence ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5800, The World Bank.
    4. Mottaleb, Khondoker Abdul & Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Ali, Akhter, 2017. "An exploration into the household energy choice and expenditure in Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 767-776.
    5. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter, 2017. "Factors determining household use of clean and renewable energy sources for lighting in Sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 661-672.
    6. Brooks, N. & Bhojvaid, V. & Jeuland, M.A. & Lewis, J.J. & Patange, O. & Pattanayak, S.K., 2016. "How much do alternative cookstoves reduce biomass fuel use? Evidence from North India," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 153-171.
    7. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter & Marenya, Paswel, 2017. "A ladder within a ladder: Understanding the factors influencing a household's domestic use of electricity in four African countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 167-181.
    8. Pallegedara, Asankha & Mottaleb, Khondoker Abdul & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2021. "Exploring choice and expenditure on energy for domestic works by the Sri Lankan households: Implications for policy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    9. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter, 2016. "Household energy choice and consumption intensity: Empirical evidence from Bhutan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 993-1009.
    10. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter, 2016. "Patterns and determinants of household use of fuels for cooking: Empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 117(P1), pages 93-104.
    11. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Das, Sukanya & De Groote, Hugo & Behera, Bhagirath, 2014. "Determinants of household energy use in Bhutan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 661-672.
    12. Malla, Sunil & Timilsina, Govinda R, 2014. "Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6903, The World Bank.
    13. Akhter Ali & Dil Bahadur Rahut & Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb & Jeetendra Prakash Aryal, 2019. "Alternate energy sources for lighting among rural households in the Himalayan region of Pakistan: Access and impact," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(7), pages 1291-1312, November.
    14. Wang, Menghan & Liu, Zhong & Xu, Aiyan & Yang, Dan, 2022. "Fuel choice for rural Tibetan households: Impacts of access to credit," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Gebru, Bahre & Elofsson, Katarina, 2023. "The role of forest status in households’ fuel choice in Uganda," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    16. Stabridis, Omar & van Gameren, Edwin, 2018. "Exposure to firewood: Consequences for health and labor force participation in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 382-395.
    17. Jack Gregory & David I. Stern, 2012. "Fuel Choices in Rural Maharashtra," CCEP Working Papers 1207, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    18. Ghada Barsoum & Bruno Crépon & Drew Gardiner & Bastien Michel & William Parienté, 2022. "Evaluating the Impact of Entrepreneurship Edutainment in Egypt: An Experimental Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 82-109, January.
    19. Liu, Ziming & Li, Jia & Rommel, Jens & Feng, Shuyi, 2020. "Health impacts of cooking fuel choice in rural China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Francesco Sobbrio, 2014. "The political economy of news media: theory, evidence and open issues," Chapters, in: Francesco Forte & Ram Mudambi & Pietro Maria Navarra (ed.), A Handbook of Alternative Theories of Public Economics, chapter 13, pages 278-320, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Q50; Q55; Clean fuel; Information; Operator; Environment; Indoor air pollution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:181-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.