The Impact of Cooking with Firewood on Respiratory Health: Evidence from Indonesia

Ani Silwal and Andy McKay

Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: The vast majority of households in low-income countries cook with firewood, which is known to produce various airborne toxins. We examine whether cooking with firewood results in poorer respiratory health by using a unique Indonesian household survey that collected direct measures of lung capacity. We find that individuals living in households that cook with firewood have 11.2 per cent lower lung capacity than those that cook with cleaner fuels. This impact is larger for women and children than for men. The results strongly support the international policy focus on encouraging households to switch to cooking with cleaner fuels.

Keywords: Health production; Indoor air pollution; Household energy use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 O13 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-hea and nep-sea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://www.sussex.ac.uk/economics/documents/wps-72-2014.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Impact of Cooking with Firewood on Respiratory Health: Evidence from Indonesia (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sus:susewp:7214

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