Energy spending and household characteristics of floating population: Evidence from Shanghai

Abstract

The floating population in China is a large and special group that works in modern cities but cannot enjoy the same welfare benefits as local households due to the population registration system. Their energy consumption patterns may differ considerably from local urban households and their rural family members. Hence, the present paper studies the effects of household characteristics on energy spending by data collected from a survey of floating population in Shanghai. We concluded that several characteristics of floating population are important factors to explain their energy spending and consumption patterns. We found that the effect of income on energy spending is different from the effect of total household expenditure even though positive relations are observed between income and total expenditure of a household. Household size is another key variable for total energy spending, electricity spending, and gas spending but not for oil spending. Instead, number of motor vehicles is a key variable for oil spending. Finally location of a household in the downtown generally implies less energy spending (mainly oil). However, no clear evidence supports this for electricity and gas spending.