Education Quality and Energy Poverty: Evidence from Chinese Elite Universities

Haining Wang, Zhiming Cheng and Russell Smyth

The Energy Journal, 2025, vol. 46, issue 5, 25-55

Abstract: Using China’s higher education expansion as a natural experiment, we examine the causal effect of education quality on the proclivity to be in energy poverty. We find that education causes a reduction in the likelihood of being in energy poverty and that the point estimates are largest for those that attended elite universities, followed by those who attended non-elite universities and colleges. This finding is robust to alternative ways of measuring energy poverty, as well as a series of sensitivity checks. We find that cognitive ability, employment status, generalised trust and income mediate the relationship between education and energy poverty. JEL Classification : I23, I32, Q41

Keywords: elite university; energy poverty; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:enejou:v:46:y:2025:i:5:p:25-55

DOI: 10.1177/01956574251330238

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