Residential and Domestic Coal Consumption: An Empirical Study of their Effects on Child Development in China

Abstract

Exposure to particles as a result of coal burning holds dangerous health implications to which children are most vulnerable. Despite the decline in industrial coal consumption in China, however, residential coal consumption has been increasing since 2008, especially in rural areas. The objective of this research is to examine the impacts of residential and domestic coal consumption on birth and child health outcomes for children aged 0-10 years old by merging the China Family Panel Survey data set with reported Residential Coal Consumption measurements by the National Bureau of Statistics provided by CEIC. Residential Coal Consumption is an annual measurement for a given province and its urban or rural status, while domestic coal consumption denotes whether a household uses coal as the primary cooking fuel. Findings initially suggest that domestic coal consumption and residential coal consumption do not significantly impact birth or health outcomes. However, upon further analysis, findings reveal that domestic coal consumption does negatively impact birth outcomes, with disproportional effect on children born after 2008 or boys. Residential coal consumption, on the other hand does not negatively impact birth or health outcomes, but rather mitigates effects for children born after 2008, boys and urban children. This is perhaps because of the differing visual and media cues in high and low residential coal consumption regions that generate different responses and avoidance behaviors leading to such an unexpected finding. Overall, exposure to residential and domestic coal consumption have differing and often opposite effects on birth and health outcomes.