Despite the efforts and advocacy favouring cleaner cooking fuels, traditional and heavily polluting fuels dominate many developing countries. This has prompted the need for further research and evidence to support policies to increase clean energy adoption and accelerate the energy transition agenda in these countries. This study investigates the role of social origin in Ghana, proxied by parental education, in cooking fuel choice. Employing a household survey of over 1,200 households, the study first uses instrumental variables to explore the effect of parental education on energy poverty. Parental education turns out exogenous; hence, linear probability estimation is employed to examine the relationship between parental education and energy choice. The study finds that parental education significantly positively affects clean cooking fuel adoption, with stronger effects found for fathers’ education than mothers’ education. Heterogeneity analyses show the effects dampen among lower income groups and rural residents. With an obvious shift in educational attainment trends in recent times, as more persons attain higher education, the findings suggest that policies that infuse the socialization of children with clean energy and sustainability issues will accelerate the clean energy transition.
Keywords: Energy choice; firewood; LPG; parental education; social origin
Manuscript submitted to Energy |
