Group segmentation and heterogeneity in the choice of cooking fuels in post-earthquake Nepal

TL;DR

This study uses multivariate analysis on post-earthquake Nepal household data to identify ethnicity as the primary factor influencing cooking fuel choices, with implications for targeted policy interventions.

Contribution

It introduces the use of PERMANOVA to analyze heterogeneity in fuel choice and highlights ethnicity as the key factor for policy focus in promoting clean cooking.

Findings

Ethnicity explains 39.12% of variation in fuel choice.

Chepang/Thami community shows lowest intra-ethnic diversity.

Newars exhibit the highest intra-ethnic diversity.

Abstract

Segmenting population into subgroups with higher intergroup, but lower intragroup, heterogeneity can be useful in enhancing the effectiveness of many socio-economic policy interventions; yet it has received little attention in promoting clean cooking. Here, we use PERMANOVA, a distance-based multivariate analysis, to identify the factor that captures the highest intergroup heterogeneity in the choice of cooking fuels. Applying this approach to the post-earthquake data on 747,137 households from Nepal, we find that ethnicity explains 39.12% of variation in fuel choice, followed by income (26.30%), education (12.62%), and location (4.05%). This finding indicates that ethnicity, rather than income or other factors, as a basis of policy interventions may be more effective in promoting clean cooking. We also find that, among the ethnic groups in Nepal, the most marginalized Chepang/Thami community exhibits the lowest intragroup diversity (Shannon index = 0.101) while Newars the highest (0.667). This information on intra-ethnic diversity in fuel choice can have important policy implications for reducing ethnic gap in clean cooking.