Women’s Empowerment in Households and the Use of Cleaner Cooking Fuel in Ghana

The study explores the effect of women’s empowerment on energy poverty in Ghana. Specifically, using data from the Ghana Living Standards Surveys administered in the years 1998/99, 2005/06, 2012/13 and 2016/17, and employing the ordered probit, multinomial probit, OLS and 2SLS-IV regressions, the study finds that households managed by female are more likely to use cleaner types of cooking fuel than male-headed households. Within the sub-sample of female-headed households, both de jure (absolute controlled) and de facto (partial controlled) female-headed households are more likely to use cleaner types of cooking fuel than their male-headed counterparts. However, the magnitude, at least in the case of firewood, is higher for de jure than de facto female heads, suggesting that the level of female empowerment in household potentially matters in reducing energy poverty. An analysis on household expenditure, reveals that female-headed households prioritise household food expenditure over expenditure on non-essential (such as alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics), compared to male-headed households. Avoiding expenditures on non-essentials (alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics) seems to help in the adoption of cleaner cooking fuel in female-headed households.