Substitutes or complements? Exploring the impact of environmental regulations and informal institutions on the clean energy utilization behaviors of farmers

With rapid economic development and tremendous population growth, emerging economies are facing huge pressure to conserve energy and reduce emissions. Although governmental authorities have formulated numerous relevant policies, a considerable number of farmers have yet to actively take energy-saving measures. Consequently, it is imperative to investigate how institutions (i.e., environmental regulations and informal institutions) affect the clean energy utilization behaviors (CEUBs) of farmers (e.g., biomass energy, natural gas, and solar energy) for better aligning governance strategies. Drawing on institutional theory, we explore the underlying influencing mechanisms of the institutional constraints on farmers’ CEUBs using survey data collected from Central China. The double hurdle model results reveal that both environmental regulations (e.g., incentivizing regulations, binding regulations) and informal institutions (e.g., value orientation) have positive impacts on farmers’ adoption of CEUBs. Informal institutions were found to have stronger influences on farmers’ CEUBs than formal regulations. Interestingly, the interactions between two institutional constraints primarily have substitutionary effects on the natural gas and solar energy using behaviors of farmers. The interaction effects of the two institutional constraints on biomass energy using behavior are complementary. Consequently, this study sheds new light on guiding farmer CEUBs and better aligning formal and informal energy strategies.