Do female cadres improve clean energy accessibility in villages? Evidence from rural China

The active role of female cadres in promoting clean energy has received considerable attention while existing research fails to provide robust evidence. This study investigates the role of female village cadres in enhancing the accessibility of clean energy in rural areas. Using large-scale survey data from the Third Agricultural Census in China, this study presents a robust effect of female cadres on clean energy accessibility and plausible mechanisms in rural areas. The findings indicate that female cadres have a positive impact on the natural gas connection and connection rate within the village, with an increase of 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively. Moreover, the heterogeneity analyses reveal that the positive impact of female cadres is particularly pronounced in villages situated in mountainous regions. Additionally, the accessibility of clean energy can be effectively enhanced by the presence of female cadres in the village, particularly when their proportion reaches approximately 87%. The contributions of female cadres are more considerable when the village is more likely to elect female cadres. Furthermore, the identification of mechanisms suggests that female cadres improve clean energy accessibility by promoting entrepreneurship, developing the collective economy, and providing elderly care services. Based on these findings, several policy implications are proposed to facilitate access to clean energy in rural areas.