How does air pollution affect household energy expenditure: A micro-empirical study based on avoidance behavior.

China is one of the world's most highly-pollutant countries, and over the last few years has experienced severe and persistent haze pollution. Exploring the effects of air pollution on household energy expenditure will provide a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the economic effects of environmental pollution. It is an important question but remains unanswered because of an estimation endogeneity. Household non-clean energy consumption would increase air pollution. A major challenge in estimates is how to accurately and cleanly identify the unwatched effect of air pollution given the endogeneity. Using the global satellite monitoring data and unique micro-household survey data, we try to construct an instrumental variable to identify the net effect of air pollution on Chinese household energy expenditure. We find that the increase in air pollution has a significantly positive effect on household energy expenditure. The results remain robust after a series of pivotal checks. Our findings highlight that stay-home-avoidance behaviors as a potential mechanism behind the energy-associated effects of air pollution on household energy expenditure. The well-educated, high-income, and urban households in southern China are more likely to engage in stay-home-avoidance behaviors. These findings can provide some useful policy enlightenments for the government in terms of environmental regulation and promotion of household clean energy.

Towards low-carbon development: The role of industrial robots in decarbonization in Chinese cities.

Technological advancements have played a key role in improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions, and industrial robots are important carriers of intelligent manufacturing and industrial upgrading. Although various countries and regions are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, a consensus has not been reached on whether industrial robots can help. This study investigates how industrial robots affect carbon emissions by categorizing industry data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR, 2010-2018) into city-level variables. The empirical finding revealed that cities' carbon emissions have been significantly reduced by the application of industrial robots. By using the penetration of robots in Chinese cities as an instrumental variable constructed through the combination of employment level and robot imports, the beneficial role of robots is further verified by a plausibly exogenous test. The mechanism analysis revealed that industrial robots contribute to cities' decarbonization by enhancing energy efficiency and green technology efficiency. The heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of industrial robots on decarbonization is more pronounced in megacities, advanced manufacturing bases, and low-carbon pilot cities. This study empirically confirms the positive role of industrial robots in carbon emission reduction, provides evidence for industrial robots' technical characteristics of decarbonization, and proposes novel ideas for achieving net-zero carbon emissions.