Relationship between education and households' electricity-saving behaviour in South Africa: A multilevel logistic analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the education level of household heads and households' energy-saving practices at the micro-level in South Africa. It uses the community survey of 2016 as data source. Multilevel logistic models are estimated to account for similari-ties between households in same municipalities. The results point to a significant and positive relationship between the education level of household heads and households' energy-saving practices. One can therefore infer that a household whose head is educated is more likely to have light bulbs, switch off lights in the house when not in use, and switch off appliances at the wall (not with remotes) when not in use than households whose heads have no education. Therefore, education offers a tool to incentivise households to save electricity, which will also contribute indirectly to the effort of addressing the challenges of climate change, amongst oth-ers.