Published In

Environment and Development Economics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2025

Subjects

Biomass fuels -- Ethiopia

Abstract

This study examines longer-run usage frequency of Mirt improved biomass cookstoves (ICS), one of the most important ICS promoted in Ethiopia. Mirt has been shown to improve childhood health, and reduce fuelwood consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but to generate those benefits, households must regularly use it over extended periods. Thus, this paper focuses on longer-run use using stove surface temperature data over five time intervals. We find that, close to its estimated lifespan, 63 per cent of households had their stoves in place after more than 3.5 years. Of those who abandoned their stoves, over 80 per cent did so due to breakage, indicating little abandonment of functional stoves. Among those who retained their stoves, despite the relatively long time frame, we observe no decline in regular usage, suggesting the ICS deliver long-term benefits. We find no correlation of dis-adoption with three randomly assigned monetary treatments and no effect of treatments on long-run usage frequency.

Rights

Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Copyright © The Author(s), 2025

DOI

10.1017/S1355770X25000117

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43565

Download

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS