Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves

It is conventional wisdom that it is possible to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution, improve health outcomes, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the rural areas of developing countries through the adoption of improved cooking stoves. This belief is largely supported by observational field studies and engineering or laboratory experiments. However, a new evidence is provided, from a randomized control trial conducted in rural Orissa, India (one of the poorest places in India), on the benefits of a commonly used improved stove that laboratory tests showed to reduce indoor air pollution and require less fuel. Households are tracked for up to four years after they received the stove. [BREAD Working Paper No. 338]. URL:[http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/338.pdf].