Tenancy and energy choices in Rwanda. A replication and extension study

This paper replicates and extends the study by Martey (2019) by investigating the effect of house ownership patterns and rental status on energy choices for lighting and cooking within the context of Rwanda. Unlike Ghana, Rwanda has a unique house ownership policy which could have implications on the findings of Martey (2019). As an extension, our study explores the heterogeneous effect of tenancy on energy choices across gender of households’ heads and households’ geographical location (rural–urban). Using a bivariate probit model and the fifth Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey data of Rwanda, we find that rental status and dwelling type have varying effects on cooking and lighting fuel choices. Our results show that renters relative to owner-occupants in urban households are more likely to use transition fuels like charcoal for cooking than in rural areas. The result for lighting energy is, however, inconclusive for rural and urban households. We find that female-headed households are more likely to adopt cleaner cooking energy choices. The study only partly supports the energy ladder hypothesis which suggests how evidence does not always provide conclusive support of this hypothesis.