Experimental evidence on promotion of electric and improved biomass cookstoves
Abstract
<jats:p>Improved cookstoves (ICS) can deliver “triple wins” by improving household
health, local environments, and global climate. Yet their potential is in doubt because
of low and slow diffusion, likely because of constraints imposed by differences in
culture, geography, institutions, and missing markets. We offer insights about this
challenge based on a multiyear, multiphase study with nearly 1,000 households in the
Indian Himalayas. In phase I, we combined desk reviews, simulations, and focus groups
to diagnose barriers to ICS adoption. In phase II, we implemented a set of pilots
to simulate a mature market and designed an intervention that upgraded the supply
chain (combining marketing and home delivery), provided rebates and financing to lower
income and liquidity constraints, and allowed households a choice among ICS. In phase
III, we used findings from these pilots to implement a field experiment to rigorously
test whether this combination of upgraded supply and demand promotion stimulates adoption.
The experiment showed that, compared with zero purchase in control villages, over
half of intervention households bought an ICS, although demand was highly price-sensitive.
Demand was at least twice as high for electric stoves relative to biomass ICS. Even
among households that received a negligible price discount, the upgraded supply chain
alone induced a 28 percentage-point increase in ICS ownership. Although the bundled
intervention is resource-intensive, the full costs are lower than the social benefits
of ICS promotion. Our findings suggest that market analysis, robust supply chains,
and price discounts are critical for ICS diffusion.</jats:p>
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18579Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1073/pnas.1808827116Publication Info
Pattanayak, SK; Jeuland, M; Lewis, JJ; Usmani, F; Brooks, N; Bhojvaid, V; ... Ramanathan,
V (n.d.). Experimental evidence on promotion of electric and improved biomass cookstoves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. pp. 201808827-201808827. 10.1073/pnas.1808827116. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18579.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Marc A. Jeuland
Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Marc Jeuland is an Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, with
a joint appointment in the Duke Global Health Institute. His research interests include
nonmarket valuation, water and sanitation, environmental health, energy poverty and
transitions, trans-boundary water resource planning and management, and the impacts
and economics of climate change. Jeuland's recent research includes work to understand
the economic implications of climate change for water
Subhrendu K. Pattanayak
Oak Foundation Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy
Faraz Usmani
Research Assistant, Ph D Student
I am an applied microeconomist, with research interests at the intersection of environmental,
energy and development economics. In addition to being a PhD candidate at Duke University, I
am a Doctoral Student Fellow at the Duke University Energy Initiative, and a Doctoral
Scholar</a
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