Air Conditioning and Inequality

Abstract

The study uses household-level microdata from 16 countries to characterize empirically the relationship between climate, income, and residential air conditioning. The study shows that both current and future air conditioner usage is concentrated among high-income households. Not only do richer countries have much more air conditioning than poorer countries, but within countries adoption is highly concentrated among high-income households. This research is part of the Energy and Economic Growth Applied Research Programme