Fuel Switching and Labor Supply of Rural Women in India

Using the nationally representative Indian Human Development Survey, we study whether use of cleaner energy source for cooking leads to increased female work participation. We categorize women household into three groups by the cooking fuel they use: biomass, mixed fuel, and modern fuel. The methodology used in this paper is difference-in-differences with multivalued treatment. We find that switching from solid to mixed fuel negatively affects women's work participation. This study also confirms that switching from mixed to modern fuel will increase the probability of female work participation in rural India significantly. Moreover, we do not find any average treatment effect on the female work participation for households who maintain the status quo