Journal
CHINA & WORLD ECONOMY
Volume 29, Issue 5, Pages 127-147Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/cwe.12390
Keywords
consumption upgrading; distribution dynamics; energy consumption; regional disparity
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [71828401]
- Beijing Social Science Fund Project [19LJB001]
- Program for Innovation Research in Central University of Finance and Economics
- Beijing Research Center of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era [19LLLJA001]
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This study reveals the existence of convergence clubs in relative household energy consumption with consumption upgrading, especially more evident in lower middle and low quality of life groups. Significant disparities are found among urban and rural households as well as different regions within the same quality of life group. The results suggest that an improvement in quality of life does not necessarily lead to a higher level of energy consumption.
Increasing household energy consumption, mainly due to consumption upgrading, will create tough challenges for China if that country is to achieve peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060. However, this critical issue has not been explored comprehensively in the literature. Using China Family Panel Studies data and the distribution dynamics approach, this article is the first study to examine the relationship between quality of life (QOL) (proxied by consumption upgrading) and relative household energy consumption (RHEC). The results show that convergence clubs exist in all QOL groups for the RHEC, but they are more evident in the groups with lower middle and low QOL. This is encouraging because they suggest that an improvement in QOL does not necessarily lead to a higher level of energy consumption. The dataset was then divided into rural-urban and regional subgroups to further explore the impacts of these different characteristics on energy consumption. Significant disparities are found among the same QOL groups between urban and rural households and among different regions. The results derived from this study lead to pragmatic policy suggestions in areas including energy saving, emissions reduction, and particularly alleviation of inequality.
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