Labor Off-Farm Employment and Farmers’ Cooking Clean Energy Use: Evidence from Rural China

Wenfeng Zhou, Chen Qing, Shili Guo, Jia He, Xin Deng, Jiahao Song and Dingde Xu
Additional contact information
Wenfeng Zhou: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Chen Qing: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Shili Guo: School of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China
Jia He: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Xin Deng: College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Jiahao Song: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Dingde Xu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: (Motivation) With the transfer of labor force and the continuous improvement of household income, the household energy consumption structure is also changing. (Gaps) However, few studies have explored the correlations between labor off-farm employment (LOE) and farmers’ cooking clean energy (CCE) consumption. (Methodologies) Using survey data of 8198 farmers in 27 provinces from China’s labor dynamic survey in 2016, the IV-Probit model was used to analyze the impact of LOE on CCE use, and the mediation effect model was used to examine the specific mechanism of action between them. (Results) The results found that: (1) LOE accounted for about 39%, and farmers’ utilization rate of CCE accounted for 40%. (2) LOE has significantly promoted the use of CCE by farmers, and this action mechanism is mainly realized through three paths, that is, per capita annual cash income, social relationship network, and family population structure. (3) The heterogeneity analysis results showed that the head of the household having a university education or above, the family being located in rural areas and mountainous areas, and LOE will have a greater positive impact on the farmers’ CCE use. (Policy) From the micro perspective of LOE, this study can deepen our understanding of LOE and CCE use decisions, and then provide a reference for the rational allocation of labor resources and farmers’ CCE-related policy formulation.

Keywords: labor off-farm employment (LOE); cooking clean energy (CCE); rural areas; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/972/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/972/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:7:p:972-:d:856757

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().