Energy-Efficient Biomass Cookstoves and the Rebound: Evidence from Field Experiments in Rwanda and Senegal
In developing countries, energy-efficient biomass cookstoves lower the marginal cost of food preparation, thereby inducing households to cook more and offsetting part of the expected energy savings. This paper examines such rebound effects and their implications for energy and food consumption, drawing on the randomized distribution of energy-efficient biomass cookstoves to households free of charge in rural Rwanda and Senegal. Our estimations benefit from the exogenous variation in cooking efficiency due to the randomized assignment of the stoves. For both samples, we find a statistically significant and substantial reduction in energy use among treated households. In the Senegalese sample, this reduction is offset by a moderate rebound effect ranging between 16% and 25%. For the Rwandan sample, we find no statistically significant rebound effect. We discuss mechanisms that potentially drive these differences and the implications for rebound research and energy access policy.
United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE)
JEL-Klassifikation: C93, D12, O12, O13, Q41