Household clean energy consumption and health: Theoretical and empirical analysis

Abstract

The impact of energy consumption on health has become a widely debated topic around the world. However, much of the current research on this topic lacks a theoretical basis. As a result, this paper employs both theoretical and empirical analysis to investigate the impact of household clean energy consumption on residents' health. First, based on the theories of health economics and energy economics, this paper believes that the usage of clean energy can improve the health of residents. Then, the sample for this study is comprised of data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, and the Order Probit Model is applied for the empirical analysis. The outcomes of basic regression, robustness testing, and the treatment of endogenous factors reveal that the usage of clean energy has greatly benefited the health of residents. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that long-term use of clean energy greatly improved the health of non-religious people and had a more pronounced impact on the health of women and low-income residents. In addition, the mechanistic analysis indicates that subjective happiness and air quality played a partial mediating role in the impact of cleaner energy consumption on health. Finally, cleaner household energy reduced the prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, lung disease, asthma, and depression. The conclusion of this paper supports the view of some existing literature, and several policy recommendations are made based on the research findings.

Keywords: CHARLS; China; clean energy consumption; health; ordered probit model; theory of health economics.