Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves

Rema Hanna, Esther Duflo and Michael Greenstone

No 18033, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: It is conventional wisdom that it is possible to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution, improve health outcomes, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the rural areas of developing countries through the adoption of improved cooking stoves. This belief is largely supported by observational field studies and engineering or laboratory experiments. However, we provide new evidence, from a randomized control trial conducted in rural Orissa, India (one of the poorest places in India), on the benefits of a commonly used improved stove that laboratory tests showed to reduce indoor air pollution and require less fuel. We track households for up to four years after they received the stove. While we find a meaningful reduction in smoke inhalation in the first year, there is no effect over longer time horizons. We find no evidence of improvements in lung functioning or health and there is no change in fuel consumption (and presumably greenhouse gas emissions). The difference between the laboratory and field findings appear to result from households' revealed low valuation of the stoves. Households failed to use the stoves regularly or appropriately, did not make the necessary investments to maintain them properly, and usage rates ultimately declined further over time. More broadly, this study underscores the need to test environmental and health technologies in real-world settings where behavior may temper impacts, and to test them over a long enough horizon to understand how this behavioral effect evolves over time.

JEL-codes: I15 I18 O10 O12 O13 Q0 Q23 Q3 Q51 Q53 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
Note: EEE EH PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

Published as Rema Hanna & Esther Duflo & Michael Greenstone, 2016. "Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 80-114, February.

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Related works:
Working Paper: Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves (2017)
Journal Article: Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves (2016)
Working Paper: Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves (2012)
Working Paper: Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves (2012)
Working Paper: Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves (2012)
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