Impact of internal migration on household energy poverty: Empirical evidence from rural China

Abstract

Reducing energy poverty has been recognized as an effective way to eliminate overall poverty and achieve sustainable development for individuals, which are two major global challenges. This study investigated how migration affected household energy poverty in rural China. Drawing on data from the China Family Panel Studies, we adopted the instrumental variable method to examine the causal relationship between internal migration and energy poverty and probe its mechanisms. We found that internal migration significantly reduced the likelihood of family energy poverty. Specifically, the probability of energy poverty in a family with labor migration was 13.1% lower than in a family without labor migration, and the probability of energy poverty decreased by 6.4% when each additional laborer in the family migrated. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis revealed that labor migration had a particularly significant impact on families in central and western regions and villages near counties. Migration also plays amore important role for low-income households with less-educatedmale heads. The mechanism analysis revealed that labor migration could reduce the probability of family energy poverty by increasing family income, which outweighed the negative effects of the increased share of elderly and children left behind by migration. These findings offer important policy insights for countries undergoing development and transformation.