Alleviating Parental Energy Poverty: The Role of Adult Children’s Education

Alleviating energy poverty is fundamental to enhancing societal well-being and advancing sustainable development. This paper examines the relationship between adult children’s education and parental energy poverty alleviation. We draw on microdata from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and exploit the Compulsory Education Law reforms implemented across China around 1986 as a source of exogenous variation in schooling years. Our findings reveal that each additional year of offspring schooling significantly reduces the likelihood of parental energy poverty. We identify two potential mechanisms: promoting internet adoption and improving access to modern energy equipment. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the effect is more pronounced in rural households and among families with male children than among those with female children. These findings offer actionable insights for addressing energy poverty and advancing intergenerational sustainability.