Quantifying the impacts of energy inequality on carbon emissions in China: A household-level analysis

Abstract

This study empirically investigates the impact of energy inequality on household carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China by employing a balanced panel dataset for China's 30 provinces for the period 2000–2017. Fully considering the potential cross-sectional dependence, this study employs a series of empirical approaches allowing for cross-sectional dependence. Moreover, given the significant differences in energy inequality and household CO2 emissions, we further conduct an asymmetric analysis on the nexus between energy inequality and household CO2 emissions. The empirical results indicate energy inequality can positively affect the volume of household CO2 emissions; however, this finding makes no economic sense since it goes against the actual conditions in China (energy inequality and household CO2 emissions have shown reverse change trends in recent years). Simultaneously, we find that narrowing energy inequality can reduce the growth rate of CO2 emissions, a fact we confirm with a series of robustness tests. Notably, the impact of energy inequality on household CO2 growth is asymmetric across various quantiles (i.e., different regions). Accordingly, we highlight several relevant policy implications for the Chinese government to reduce household CO2 emissions and narrow energy inequality.