How does energy poverty eradication promote common prosperity in China? The role of labor productivity

Abstract

Eradicating poverty and then achieving common prosperity is a dream the Chinese people have pursued vigorously in modern times. To promote common prosperity by eradicating energy poverty, we establish a comprehensive evaluation index to analyze the level of common prosperity in China. Subsequently, we examine the energy poverty and common prosperity nexus by employing the system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) approach. Finally, we examine the mechanism and heterogeneity of energy poverty eradication affecting common prosperity. Our results show that eradicating energy poverty has a significant positive effect on common prosperity in China, and indirectly affects common prosperity by increasing labor productivity. The impact is more pronounced in China's central and eastern regions, whereas it is less significant in the western regions. Furthermore, the impact of eradicating energy poverty on common prosperity is stronger in low energy-poverty areas (LOW-EP). According to these findings, this study proposes policies to promote common prosperity by eradicating energy poverty.