Childhood adversity and energy poverty

Abstract

The literature on the antecedents of energy poverty does not consider the potential role of early life experiences. This study fills this gap in the literature by providing causal evidence that early life experiences have a direct effect on subsequent energy poverty status. Using data from China Family Panel Studies, we analyze whether being a child or adolescent in the Great Chinese Famine raises the likelihood of being in energy poverty in adulthood. We find that, conditional on surviving, a one unit increase in the intensity of the Famine, measured by the number of excess deaths per 100 people, leads to a 1.2–1.6 percentage points decline in the probability of being in energy poverty in adulthood, depending on the exact specification and measure of energy poverty. We also find that personal income is a channel through which being a child or adolescent during the Great Famine affects the proclivity to be in energy poverty later in life. These findings are robust to alternative ways of measuring childhood adversity and energy poverty and suggest that resilience is an unobserved strength that carries meaningful economic consequences.