IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v115y2022ics0140988322004765.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fuel choice for rural Tibetan households: Impacts of access to credit

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Menghan
  • Liu, Zhong
  • Xu, Aiyan
  • Yang, Dan

Abstract

Evidence on the determinants of fuel choice by ethnic groups inhabiting special geomorphic areas is scant. Previous studies suggest that access to credit positively impacts the use of clean cooking energy. This study analyzes the effect of access to credit on fuel choice for rural Tibetan households in Lhasa, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and finds the opposite effect. We apply the recursive bivariate probit model based on a field survey dataset and find that access to credit significantly lowers the likelihood of the rural Tibetan households choosing only clean energy sources as their main fuels for cooking and heating. Further evidence demonstrates that access to credit increases the total income of rural households, as well as the number of yaks raised by those households. A by-product of this, the amount of readily available yak dung, thus also increases. This heightened use of non-clean, cash-free yak dung as a fuel overwhelms the positive effect of increased income on clean fuel adoption. We also find that the effects of access to credit vary with the household size, access to internet and the altitude of home location.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:115:y:2022:i:c:s0140988322004765
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106347
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322004765
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106347?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luo, Guo-liang & Zhang, Xinghua, 2012. "Universalization of access to modern energy services in Tibetan rural households—Renewable energy's exploitation, utilization, and policy analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2373-2380.
    2. Chen, Qiu & Yang, Haoran & Liu, Tianbiao & Zhang, Lin, 2016. "Household biomass energy choice and its policy implications on improving rural livelihoods in Sichuan, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 291-302.
    3. Ouedraogo, Boukary, 2006. "Household energy preferences for cooking in urban Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3787-3795, December.
    4. Zheng, Xinye & Wei, Chu & Qin, Ping & Guo, Jin & Yu, Yihua & Song, Feng & Chen, Zhanming, 2014. "Characteristics of residential energy consumption in China: Findings from a household survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 126-135.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Dil Bahadur Rahut & Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb & Akhter Ali, 2017. "Household Energy Consumption and Its Determinants in Timor-Leste," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 34(1), pages 167-197, March.
    8. 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.
    9. Lay, Jann & Ondraczek, Janosch & Stoever, Jana, 2013. "Renewables in the energy transition: Evidence on solar home systems and lighting fuel choice in Kenya," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 350-359.
    10. Wang, Qiang, 2009. "Prevention of Tibetan eco-environmental degradation caused by traditional use of biomass," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2562-2570, December.
    11. Li, Jianglong & Chen, Chang & Liu, Hongxun, 2019. "Transition from non-commercial to commercial energy in rural China: Insights from the accessibility and affordability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 392-403.
    12. Heltberg, Rasmus, 2005. "Factors determining household fuel choice in Guatemala," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 337-361, June.
    13. Shahidur R. Khandker, 2005. "Microfinance and Poverty: Evidence Using Panel Data from Bangladesh," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 19(2), pages 263-286.
    14. Jingchao, Zhang & Kotani, Koji, 2012. "The determinants of household energy demand in rural Beijing: Can environmentally friendly technologies be effective?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 381-388.
    15. 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.
    16. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2012. "Social and ecological effects of biomass utilization and the willingness to use clean energy in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet plateau," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 828-833.
    17. 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.
    18. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    19. Démurger, Sylvie & Fournier, Martin, 2011. "Poverty and firewood consumption: A case study of rural households in northern China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 512-523.
    20. Joshi, Janak & Bohara, Alok K., 2017. "Household preferences for cooking fuels and inter-fuel substitutions: Unlocking the modern fuels in the Nepalese household," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 507-523.
    21. Paudel, Uttam & Khatri, Umesh & Pant, Krishna Prasad, 2018. "Understanding the determinants of household cooking fuel choice in Afghanistan: A multinomial logit estimation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 55-62.
    22. Arthur, Maria de Fatima S.R. & Zahran, Sammy & Bucini, Gabriela, 2010. "On the adoption of electricity as a domestic source by Mozambican households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7235-7249, November.
    23. Liu, Zhong & Wang, Menghan & Xiong, Qinqin & Liu, Chang, 2020. "Does centralized residence promote the use of cleaner cooking fuels? Evidence from rural China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    24. Wang, Qiang & Qiu, Huan-Ning, 2009. "Situation and outlook of solar energy utilization in Tibet, China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2181-2186, October.
    25. Liu, Gang & Lucas, Mario & Shen, Lei, 2008. "Rural household energy consumption and its impacts on eco-environment in Tibet: Taking Taktse county as an example," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(7), pages 1890-1908, September.
    26. Gupta, Gautam & Kohlin, Gunnar, 2006. "Preferences for domestic fuel: Analysis with socio-economic factors and rankings in Kolkata, India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 107-121, April.
    27. 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.
    28. Liu, Chang & Zhu, Bei & Ni, Jinlan & Wei, Chu, 2021. "Residential coal-switch policy in China: Development, achievement, and challenge," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    29. An, Li & Lupi, Frank & Liu, Jianguo & Linderman, Marc A. & Huang, Jinyan, 2002. "Modeling the choice to switch from fuelwood to electricity: Implications for giant panda habitat conservation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 445-457, September.
    30. Li, Chuhui & Poskitt, D.S. & Zhao, Xueyan, 2019. "The bivariate probit model, maximum likelihood estimation, pseudo true parameters and partial identification," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 209(1), pages 94-113.
    31. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "An Evaluation of Instrumental Variable Strategies for Estimating the Effects of Catholic Schooling," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4), pages 791-821.
    32. Guta, Dawit Diriba, 2012. "Application of an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) to Ethiopian rural residential energy use: Panel data evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 528-539.
    33. Kais Saidi & Hassen Toumi & Saida Zaidi, 2017. "Impact of Information Communication Technology and Economic Growth on the Electricity Consumption: Empirical Evidence from 67 Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(3), pages 789-803, September.
    34. Zhang, Dayong & Li, Jiajia & Han, Phoumin, 2019. "A multidimensional measure of energy poverty in China and its impacts on health: An empirical study based on the China family panel studies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 72-81.
    35. Ma, Wanglin & Zhou, Xiaoshi & Renwick, Alan, 2019. "Impact of off-farm income on household energy expenditures in China: Implications for rural energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 248-258.
    36. Leach, Gerald, 1992. "The energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 116-123, February.
    37. Pundo, Moses O. & Fraser, Gavin C.G., 2006. "Multinominal logit analysis of household cooking fuel choice in rural Kenya: The case of Kisumu district," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 45(1), pages 1-14, March.
    38. SHI, Xiaoping & HEERINK, Nico & QU, Futian, 2009. "The role of off-farm employment in the rural energy consumption transition -- A village-level analysis in Jiangxi Province, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 350-359, June.
    39. 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).
    40. Abadi, Nigussie & Gebrehiwot, Kindeya & Techane, Ataklti & Nerea, Hailish, 2017. "Links between biogas technology adoption and health status of households in rural Tigray, Northern Ethiopia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 284-292.
    41. 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.
    42. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2011. "Status and future perspectives of energy consumption and its ecological impacts in the Qinghai-Tibet region," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 514-523, January.
    43. Han, Hongyun & Wu, Shu & Zhang, Zhijian, 2018. "Factors underlying rural household energy transition: A case study of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 234-244.
    44. Jiang, Lu & Xue, Bing & Xing, Ran & Chen, Xingpeng & Song, Lan & Wang, Yutao & Coffman, D’Maris & Mi, Zhifu, 2020. "Rural household energy consumption of farmers and herders in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    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. Shittu, Ibrahim & Abdul Latiff, Abdul Rais Bin & Baharudin, Siti 'Aisyah, 2024. "Closing the clean cooking gap: Which policies and institutional qualities matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    2. Li, Xingguang & Zhang, Jianjun, 2024. "Rural digital credit and residential energy consumption: Evidence from the agricultural production perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(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. Liu, Zhong & Wang, Menghan & Xiong, Qinqin & Liu, Chang, 2020. "Does centralized residence promote the use of cleaner cooking fuels? Evidence from rural China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Li Huang & Heng Wu & Mi Zhou, 2022. "Implications of Non-Farm Work for Clean Energy Adoption: Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Christophe Muller & Huijie Yan, 2018. "Household Fuel Use in Rural China," AMSE Working Papers 1808, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    6. Zhu, Xiaodong & Zhu, Zheng & Zhu, Bangzhu & Wang, Ping, 2022. "The determinants of energy choice for household cooking in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    7. Klege, Rebecca A. & Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin & Visser, Martine, 2022. "Tenancy and energy choices in Rwanda. A replication and extension study," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    8. Kojo Sarfo Gyamfi & Elena Gaura & James Brusey & Alessandro Bezerra Trindade & Nandor Verba, 2020. "Understanding Household Fuel Choice Behaviour in the Amazonas State, Brazil: Effects of Validation and Feature Selection," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    9. Ren, Junqiushi & Xiong, Deyin, 2023. "Do social assistance programs promote the use of clean cooking fuels? Evidence from China's new rural pension scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Kuo, Ying-Min & Azam, Mehtabul, 2019. "Household Cooking Fuel Choice in India, 2004-2012: A Panel Multinomial Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 12682, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Wang, Chengchao & Yang, Yusheng & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2012. "Rural household livelihood change, fuelwood substitution, and hilly ecosystem restoration: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2475-2482.
    13. Harrington, Elise & Athavankar, Ameya & Hsu, David, 2020. "Variation in rural household energy transitions for basic lighting in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Ma, Wanglin & Zheng, Hongyun & Gong, Binlei, 2021. "Household Energy Choice for Cooking: Do Rural Income Growth and Ethnic Difference Play a Role?," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314990, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. van der Kroon, Bianca & Brouwer, Roy & van Beukering, Pieter J.H., 2013. "The energy ladder: Theoretical myth or empirical truth? Results from a meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 504-513.
    16. Liu, Ziming & Li, Jia & Rommel, Jens & Feng, Shuyi, 2020. "Health impacts of cooking fuel choice in rural China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. 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).
    18. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Aryal, Jeetendra Prakash & Chhay, Panharoth & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2022. "Ethnicity/caste-based social differentiation and the consumption of clean cooking energy in Nepal: An exploration using panel data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    19. Zhang, Xiao-Bing & Hassen, Sied, 2017. "Household fuel choice in urban China: evidence from panel data," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 392-413, August.
    20. Ma, Wanglin & Zhou, Xiaoshi & Renwick, Alan, 2019. "Impact of off-farm income on household energy expenditures in China: Implications for rural energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 248-258.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tibet; Access to credit; Cooking and heating fuels; Rural households; Bivariate probit model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

    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:eneeco:v:115:y:2022:i:c:s0140988322004765. 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/eneco .

    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.