Identifying Key Factors in Determining Disparities in Energy Consumption in China: A Household Level Analysis

With the rapid progress of socio-economic development and urbanization in China, a wide variety of literature has focused on the phenomenon of energy-consumption disparity, which in turn could be related to numerous fundamental energy dilemmas that China must deal with now or soon, including energy use inefficiency, regional energy shortage, insufficient use of green energy, etc. However, in most cases, only a tendency scenario is discussed, while identifying which factors are more likely to affect the improvement of energy supply/use has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore differences in energy consumption in specific, household-level aspects. Based on the information provided by Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2015), the Gini coefficient and the Lorentz asymmetry coefficient are used to measure the difference among various categories of energy type and end use within and between different geographical sub-groups. The findings show that: (1) household energy-consumption behaviors exhibit a complicated effect on the overall level of energy-consumption difference; (2) from the supply side, energy users show the most significant difference in biomass energy consumption, while from the demand side, the contribution of space heating to the difference in total energy consumption is the highest; (3) a great urban-rural difference in energy consumption is generally observed with its difference within rural areas being much greater than in urban areas; (4) the eastern, middle and western regions weight differently in explaining the overall difference of energy consumption. These findings provide meaningful materials and references for policymakers in China to understand the overall situation of individual energy consumption to a great extent, and to locate key points to reform the current energy policy framework.