2020/05/16 by Ratna K. Shrestha, Raunak Shrestha, Shrestha, Ratna K. +1
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Energy · Environmental Science · #Applications (stat.AP) #Energy and Environment Impacts #Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.09616
openalex publication_date 2020/05/16 · openalex created_date 2022/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Segmenting population into subgroups with higher intergroup, but lower\nintragroup, heterogeneity can be useful in enhancing the effectiveness of many\nsocio-economic policy interventions; yet it has received little attention in\npromoting clean cooking. Here, we use PERMANOVA, a distance-based multivariate\nanalysis, to identify the factor that captures the highest intergroup\nheterogeneity in the choice of cooking fuels. Applying this approach to the\npost-earthquake data on 747,137 households from Nepal, we find that ethnicity\nexplains 39.12% of variation in fuel choice, followed by income (26.30%),\neducation (12.62%), and location (4.05%). This finding indicates that\nethnicity, rather than income or other factors, as a basis of policy\ninterventions may be more effective in promoting clean cooking. We also find\nthat, among the ethnic groups in Nepal, the most marginalized Chepang/Thami\ncommunity exhibits the lowest intragroup diversity (Shannon index = 0.101)\nwhile Newars the highest (0.667). This information on intra-ethnic diversity in\nfuel choice can have important policy implications for reducing ethnic gap in\nclean cooking.\n