Assessing the effects of internet technology use on rural households' cooking energy consumption: Evidence from China

Abstract

The economic conditions of rural households have changed because the extensive usage of the Internet technology in rural China. Hence, according to micro-survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2014, 2016 and 2018, in this work we use the Probit model to experimentally examine the association between cooking energy usage and Internet technology use in Chinese rural households. Research results showed that Internet technology use can significantly and positively influences the choice of Households' clean cooking energy, and further mechanism analysis reveals that off-farm employment as a partly mediator between the use of the Internet and the clean energy consumed by households. In particular, we further examine the region and age differences in Internet technology use and its household cooking energy consumption consequences. The assessment of the Internet technology used by rural residents' heterogeneity indicates that in the eastern region or the younger and middle-aged group of rural residents can better use the Internet technology to realize the households’ cooking energy conversion. Therefore, in the context of global climate change and frequent catastrophic weather occurrences, we suggest that rural households should widely utilize the Internet, greatly expand off-farm employment channels, and accelerate the conversion and upgrading of cooking energy consumption in rural areas.