The Impact of Education on Energy Poverty: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam

In the era of industrialization and modernization, energy is always a key factor in creating a breakthrough. In contrast to the constantly increasing demand for energy, shortages or “energy poverty” are increasingly widespread. The aim of paper is to consider the effect of education on energy poverty in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey data set during the period 2010-2018. Education is considered in terms of the highest grade and degree of household head. Spending on electricity, lighting energy, entertainment & education, and service are as proxies for energy poverty. We apply the instrumental variable to take into account the endogeneity problem using the area-level education average. The finding also shows the significant relationship between education and energy poverty in two aspects. Secondly, characteristics related to household status have been demonstrated to possess a statistically significant effect on energy poverty. HHIncome and Poor, two variables used to measure income poverty, HHIncome is positively significant, meanwhile poor effect negatively on energy poverty. In addition, the outcome also shows the impact of income, region, ethnicity on energy poverty. Finally, the study has provided policy implications with an emphasis on education and “green” energy conversion, contributing to improving the energy problems.