通电中国：收入分配和居民电力消费

Powering up China: Income Distributions and Residential Electricity Consumption

Maximilian Auffhammer（University of California, Berkeley） & NBER
Catherine D. Wolfram（University of California, Berkeley ）& NBER

March 26, 2014

Abstract

Current forecasts suggest that the vast majority of growth in energy demand will

come from the developing world, and that China will play a major part in that growth.

This paper presents evidence suggesting that the shape of the income distribution,

which is typically omitted from forecasting models, plays a major role in driving house-

hold acquisition of energy-using durable goods in rural China. We use province-level

data for rural households to show that the share of the population living above the

poverty line is an important determinant of household appliance holdings even control-

ling for average household income.

Keywords: Durable Goods, Adoption, Electricity Consumption, Income Inequality

14_03_26_aw_eiathaas.pdf