Empowering women substantially accelerates the household clean energy transition in China

This study aims to better understand how gender dynamics influence household fuel choice in the context of energy transitions. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we construct a proxy index to measure womens intra-household bargaining power, and analyze the impact of women's bargaining power on households' decisions to switch from traditional solid fuels to clean alternatives. The findings suggest that households where women have greater bargaining power are more likely to adopt cleaner energy options such as gas or electricity. To address the potential endogeneity problem, we employ instrumental variable methods, finding the results are unlikely to be biased. Additional robustness checks also validate the main findings. Further analysis implies that improving the division of housework and traditional gender norms are two important indirect influence mechanisms. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the bargaining power of women with more educated, wealthier households, and urban areas has a greater impact on the decision to adopt clean cooking fuels. The findings confirm the significant role that female empowerment plays in facilitating energy transitions at the household level.