Financial support from children and older household cooking energy use in rural China

A significant proportion of households in rural China continue to rely on solid fuels as their primary cooking energy. Promoting the adoption of clean cooking fuels in these households is essential for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data, this paper explores the impact of financial support from children on older household cooking energy use in rural China. The findings indicate that receiving financial support from their children has a significant and positive impact on clean cooking energy use among older households. To address the potential endogeneity concerns, we employ the instrumental variable approach, finding the results are robust and unlikely to be biased. Additional robustness checks further validate the main findings. Moreover, we find that the positive impact is more pronounced in households coresiding with children, households headed by individuals under 70 years old, and those located in eastern and northern areas. Our findings underscore the significant role that financial support from children plays in facilitating cooking energy transitions at the household level. Based on these results, policy recommendations for accelerating older household cooking energy transition are summarized.