【题  目】Why is Firewood Use so Persistent? The Role of Income Uncertainty

【时  间】2022年12月7日（星期三），14:30-16:00

【地  点】腾讯会议ID： 974-347-380

【主讲人】罗玉峰 助理教授（对外经济贸易大学数字经济实验室）

【主持人】徐立成 助理教授（北京师范大学经济与工商管理学院）

摘要：

Despite significant public efforts towards energy transition,rural households in the developing world often continue to burn traditional biomass as an energy source,sometimes even when they have already partially adopted modern fuels.The motivations for such “energy stacking” (as opposed to switching) remain poorly understood.This study highlights the role of income uncertainty in explaining the slow uptake of modern fuels and the persistence of “stacking”.We construct an analytical framework of energy choices and show energy stacking is rational for households with uncertain incomes,then empirically test the impact of off-farm income volatility on the energy choices of rural households.Using ordered and multinomial logistic regressions on data from 8 midwestern provinces of China,we show that households who had more volatile off-farm income in the past are significantly less likely to adopt modern fuels,partially or fully.A one-unit increase in past income volatility (coefficient of variation) is associated with increased likelihood of only using traditional energy for cooking and heating,by 5.5% and 3.3% respectively.This effect is more pronounced for more essential energy uses including cooking and,for cold areas, heating.Our findings highlight the importance of household income stability in the transition to clean energy.

报告人简介：

Yufeng Luo is an Assistant Professor at the University of International Business and Economics in China. He is now working for the Digital Economy Laboratory,which is the first laboratory of social science in China.

Yufeng’s research interests lie primarily in the fields of Agricultural Economics,Health Economics,and Energy Economics.His current research mainly focuses on consumer economic behaviors, including structural models related to consumption,state-dependent consumer preferences,and discrete consumption choice.His Ph.D. dissertation studies how restrictions on container size affect soda demand, US citizens’habitual consumption behavior towards soft drinks,together with the energy choice of Chinese rural households.

Yufeng received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Georgia,where he studied as an international student with full scholarship at Agricultural and Applied Economics Department. Prior to coming to UGA, he achieved his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Nanjing Agricultural University in China.