Age structure impacts on household carbon emissions: Based on a social interaction perspective

Households, causing over 2/3 of global emissions, are vital for carbon reduction. This paper focuses on the impact of household age structure and social interactions on carbon emissions. We use data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies and employ a spatial lag model to estimate the impact of age structure and social interaction on household carbon emissions. Our findings reveal that household age structure has non-linear effect on carbon emissions, with an inverted U-shaped relationship. Furthermore, the neighborhood effect has a significant impact on carbon emissions, and social interaction tends to promote higher carbon emissions. We also uncover heterogeneity in the neighborhood effect of carbon emissions, as rural households experience a stronger neighborhood effect due to closer social relationships, while low-income households are more susceptible to the influence of neighbors than high-income households. Our most significant finding is that age structure and social interaction have synergistic effects on household carbon emissions. Specifically, Social interactions not only delay the inflection point in the relationship between age structure and household carbon emissions but also intensify the curvature of the inverted U-shaped relationship.