Study Overview
As global temperatures go up and incomes rise, air conditioner sales are poised to increase dramatically. Recent studies explore the potential economic and environmental impacts of this growth, but relatively little attention has been paid to the implications for inequality. In this paper we use household-level microdata from 16 countries to characterize empirically the relationship between climate, income, and residential air conditioning.
Study Results
We show 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. The pattern of adoption is particularly stark in relatively low-income countries such as Pakistan, where we show that the vast majority of adoption between now and 2050 will be concentrated among the upper income tercile. We use our model to forecast future adoption, show how patterns vary across countries and income levels, and discuss what these patterns mean for health, productivity, and educational inequality.
News & media
The Cooling Divide
Fall 2021
Air conditioning provides comfort, but it also changes economic outcomes. Unequal access to air conditioning has implications for health, education, productivity, and social mobility.
Air Conditioning and Global Inequality
August 9, 2021
Policymakers have been sounding the alarm about the pressures that growing air conditioning use will place on electricity systems, and on the climate through increased emissions. We already knew that these costs are borne unevenly, with vulnerable communities at greater risk from the impacts of climate change. What our findings highlight is that the benefits of air conditioning are likely to be distributed unevenly too.