Can Digital Economy Facilitate Household Clean Cooking Fuel Transition? Empirical Evidence from China

Fully harnessing the digital economy to encourage the clean transition of household cooking fuel is essential for improving environmental conditions and enhancing human health. To this end, we developed a theoretical framework to examine how the digital economy influences household cooking fuel choices and empirically investigated these relationships using panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) spanning 2014–2020. The results show that the digital economy accelerates household clean cooking fuel transition, particularly in the adoption of electricity. These conclusions remain consistent after addressing endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. Furthermore, the promotional effect exhibits certain heterogeneities, notably more prominent among female household heads, as well as in urban and northern regions. Mechanism analysis reveals that this promoting force is primarily driven by increased household income, expanded social networks, and heightened environmental awareness. These findings offer theoretical and empirical backing for utilizing the digital economy to facilitate household cooking fuel transition and guide policymakers in designing targeted interventions that consider household and regional diversity.