Human Capital Enhancement Effect of Energy Transition:Analysis Based on the Chinese Rural Electrification
Learning and applying the experience of"The Green Rural Revival Program",accelerating the clean transformation of rural energy is an important part of strengthening the construction of rural public infrastructure and steadily promoting the improvement of rural living environment,and is also an inevitable requirement for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.However,the WHO estimates that more than 3 billion people around the world still rely on solid fuels such as wood,dung and charcoal for cooking.The widespread energy ladder between energy consumption and income keeps poorer people using more harmful fuels.Indoor air pollution from incomplete combustion of these fuels in furnaces is considered an important contributor to respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases.Therefore,promoting the clean energy transition of rural households in low and middle-income countries,including China,has received extensive attention from the government and academia.From the perspective of the policy practice of energy transition,it mainly includes the replacement of clean stoves and the use of clean energy.However,the international evidence on these two types of energy transition strategies is not consistent.In particular,little literature has focused on the long-term impact of clean energy alternatives on rural human capital.This paper uses the Rural Hydropower Primary Electrification Program,which was gradually implemented in rural China in the 1980s and 1990s,to study its impact on rural human capital.China's rural electrification project is different from the practice of other countries in two aspects:first,the project runs through the whole process of rural energy substitution from three aspects:energy supply(small hydropower construction),transmission(power grid construction)and application(index assessment).Second,under the leadership of the central government,it emphasizes the endogeneity of rural energy transformation and local initiative and adopts the strategy of"raising electricity with electricity",which is self-use,local consumption and surplus electricity online.Using the sample data of the 2010 National Census,we find that preschool exposure to RHE significantly improves the educational outcomes of adolescents,increasing the years of schooling by 0.17 years,and increasing the junior middle school enrollment rate by 2.2％and senior high school enrollment rate by 3.4％.The results are partly explained by the income effect,health improvement effect and educational environment improvement effect due to rural electrification.Finally,the program also has a clear feature of inclusivity,which significantly enhances human capital for women and poor areas and does not worsen the results of small townships.This paper may make the following three contributions:First,this paper earlier highlighted and tested the long-term impact of energy transition represented by clean electricity on human capital.The current literature mainly focuses on the examination of the effects of electricity on economic development,employment and health,but there are few studies on educational outcomes,and all of them are short-term effects.This paper finds that China's rural hydropower primary electrification project has improved the conditions for adolescent human capital accumulation from both regional and intra-household dimensions,resulting in long-term effects.Second,this paper extends the literature on the relationship between government and market in the field of energy supply,emphasizing the importance of coordinating local autonomy and financial incentives under central leadership to promote clean rural energy transition.The research in this paper provides a historical and instructive case for policy design on how to motivate local governments and farmers to participate in the clean rural energy transition.Third,this paper highlights the importance of clean electricity in improving the living environment of rural households.While the existing literature and policy design have paid less attention to the governance of the residential environment within households,the study in this paper shows that rural electrification reduces residents'use of solid fuels and reduces the likelihood of residents suffering from respiratory diseases.
Rural ElectrificationEnergy TransitionEducational OutcomesPublic Health
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