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Gendered access to cooking energy solutions under multi-tier frameworks and its welfare effects in Zambia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2025

Sydney Kabango Chishimba Open the ORCID record for Sydney Kabango Chishimba [Opens in a new window]  and
Edwin Muchapondwa Open the ORCID record for Edwin Muchapondwa [Opens in a new window]
Sydney Kabango Chishimba*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Edwin Muchapondwa
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Department of Social Sciences, Technology and Arts, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
*
Corresponding author: Sydney Kabango Chishimba; Email: chssyd001@myuct.ac.za
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Abstract

Having a modern cooking stove at the household level provides an incomplete measure of cooking energy access. This limitation has necessitated the introduction of a multi-tier framework (MTF) to provide a more nuanced assessment. Thus, this study examines the overall, gendered, and rural-urban effects of cooking energy access under the MTF on health and time allocation to various household activities. Using the 2018 World Bank/ESMAP MTF dataset on Zambia, the study applies inverse probability regression adjustment with generalized propensity score to estimate pairwise average treatment effect on treated, by categorising households to tiers (0–5) based on six primary cooking energy attributes. The findings reveal that as households move up the MTF tiers, improvements in outcomes – such as reduced respiratory illness and better time allocation – are generally observed, though the magnitude of benefits tends to taper at higher tiers. Furthermore, women experience greater improvements relative to men, particularly in lower-tier transitions.

Keywords

gender multi-tier frameworkhousehold cooking energywelfare indicators

JEL classification

O13: Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products D13: Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation I30: General Q40: General

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , First View , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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