School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing100872, P. R. China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 15;56(22):16094-16103. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c06446. Epub 2022 Oct 24.
China's efforts to encourage energy transition from coal to cleaner methods of space heating have gained great achievement. However, not all progress met expectations; that is, some households still rely on solid fuel. Sociocultural factors provide one plausible explanation. While existing studies have examined and quantified the socioeconomic factors, little attention has been paid to the peer effects that are often critical in the Chinese cultural context. This study first presents household energy consumption patterns using household-level data on the coal-switching program in rural Beijing. It shows that the coal-switching program did not completely eliminate the use of solid fuel for space heating as expected. To explore the underlying determinants, we apply an econometric model of the forces driving energy transition, focusing on peer effects. The results confirm that the coal-switching program significantly reduces the use of solid fuel. Moreover, it reveals that the peer effect, measured by the average village-level solid fuel use rate, matters for households' fuel choices. We also find that the peer effect varies with different income levels and policies. These findings provide new evidence and insights for future policy design.
中国在鼓励能源从煤炭向更清洁的空间供暖方式转型方面取得了巨大成就。然而，并非所有进展都符合预期；也就是说，一些家庭仍然依赖固体燃料。社会文化因素提供了一个合理的解释。虽然现有研究已经考察和量化了社会经济因素，但很少关注在中国文化背景下通常至关重要的同伴效应。本研究首先使用北京市农村煤炭转换计划的家庭层面数据展示了家庭能源消费模式。结果表明，煤炭转换计划并没有像预期的那样完全消除固体燃料用于空间供暖。为了探索潜在的决定因素，我们应用了一个能源转型驱动力的计量经济学模型，重点关注同伴效应。结果证实，煤炭转换计划显著减少了固体燃料的使用。此外，它表明，由村庄层面固体燃料使用率衡量的同伴效应对家庭的燃料选择很重要。我们还发现，同伴效应因不同的收入水平和政策而异。这些发现为未来的政策设计提供了新的证据和见解。
