Sharing energy poverty: The nexus between social interaction-oriented gift expenditure and energy poverty in rural China

Abstract

This study examines how social interaction-oriented gift expenditure affects the energy poverty of rural households in China, accounting for energy inaccessibility, unaffordability, and multidimensional energy poverty. A conditional mixed process model was used to estimate the 2016 and 2018 China Family Panel Studies survey data and address the endogeneity of gift expenditure. The results suggest that social interaction-oriented gift expenditure could crowd out rural residents' energy expenditures and drive them to energy poverty. Specifically, every 100 Chinese yuan per capita increase in gift expenditure increases the probability of energy inaccessibility by 2.1 % and energy unaffordability by 1.5 %–1.6 %. This increase also increases the likelihood of rural households being trapped in multidimensional energy poverty by 1.9 %. Furthermore, household deposits mediate the positive associations between gift expenditure and rural energy poverty. Our findings suggest that regulating rural residents' behaviors of giving monetary gifts could help alleviate rural energy poverty.