Social capital and energy poverty: Empirical evidence from China

Energy poverty is a complex and multifaceted problem driven by many social factors outside the economic sphere, and it exists in both developed and developing countries. This study begins with a microscale measurement of the multidimensional energy poverty index and household social capital and investigates the impact of social capital on energy poverty, a topic hitherto neglected in the literature. The empirical analyses show that social capital positively impacts reducing energy poverty and serves as a complementary tool for economic development to reduce energy poverty. Additionally, the capital deficit and return deficit of social capital were found to coexist in households with higher levels of energy poverty, implying that its effect on reducing energy poverty is more advantageous to the “rich” than those with deeper energy poverty. Furthermore, the results are robust, whether it is the instrumental variable test, the replacement probit model, or the replacement index at the macro level. Social capital helps break the bottlenecks in energy requirements that may emerge with income growth, and its development has significant implications for tackling energy poverty.