Chapter 10 - Rural migrant workers’ energy consumption in passenger transport and domestic sectors of China: case study from a social perspective

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese rural migrant workers’ energy consumption is affected by various factors of living conditions, together with residential behaviors, ownership of both in-home and out-of-home energy-consuming end uses, and the built environment. Such a social perspective is emphasized because of the existence of the China-unique household registration system (hukou), which does not allow rural migrant workers to have an equal access to many public services in cities as residents with an urban hukou. Such a troublesome situation may discourage the migrants to own and use more energy-consuming electronic appliances and vehicles, leading to less energy consumption. This has however remained unknown. To this end, this study implemented a questionnaire survey in three Chinese cities in 2014 and 2015 and estimated a structural equation model. It is found that living conditions have much smaller effects on energy consumption than residential behavior, ownership of end uses, and the built environment. Policy implications and future research issues are extensively discussed.