Impacts of ICT penetration shaping nonworking time use on indirect carbon emissions: Evidence from Chinese households

People's time use is crucial for carbon emissions related to lifestyles. Increasing the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in everyday life changes time-use patterns and, thus, affects emissions. This study proposes a two-way fixed effects model following the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) framework to explore the impacts of ICT penetration and household average weekly nonworking time on household indirect emissions. Based on 2010-2018 panel data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS), the results show that a 1% increase in household average weekly nonworking time can lead to a 0.169% decrease in emissions by substituting consumption with time. In contrast, a 1% increase in the proportion of family members using a mobile phone or the proportion of family members surfing the internet can increase emissions by 0.107% or 0.127% by increasing electricity and communication consumption. ICT penetration moderates the relationship between nonworking time and emissions, which suggests that ICT amplifies the impact of nonworking time by reducing the consumption of activities and shaping the time-use pattern to be less carbon intensive.

Automated summary

People's time use is crucial for carbon emissions. The adoption of ICT affects time-use patterns and emissions. The study finds that increasing nonworking time reduces emissions by substituting consumption with time, while increasing the proportion of family members using mobile phones or surfing the internet increases emissions by increasing electricity and communication consumption.