Our research addresses the low uptake in developing countries of improved cookstoves, a technology which has positive health and environmental impacts by reducing indoor air pollution. Biomass combustion using traditional cookstoves is thought to be the main contributor to indoor air pollution, a principal culprit of acute respiratory infections in children worldwide. Black carbon emission from traditional cook-stoves is an important contributor to climate change as well. Despite these hazards, half of the world’s population continues to rely on traditional biomass-burning stoves for cooking. Although simple technologies to reduce IAP exist, efforts to promote the adoption of these “improved cook-stoves” have proven ineffective. Governments and international organizations have begun to take notice of the issue – in 2010, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was formed, with the goal of 100 million improved cookstoves by 2020. With over $250 million in projected funding, it is important to be able to effectively allocate spending to target potential consumers.
We conducted a randomized controlled study of 3000 households in 60 villages in two rural districts in Bangladesh to analyze improved cookstove adoption under eight conditions. The study design allows us to estimate the effectiveness of different interventions to promote cookstove adoption through subsidies, information about health benefits, marking campaigns aimed at women and men, and using social networks to overcome aversions to changes in traditional behavior. Our results suggest that global health practitioners need to recognize that developing country consumers are utility (rather than health) maximizers, and are already largely aware of the hazards of indoor air pollution caused by traditional cookstoves. Therefore, marketing which focuses on highlighting these effects is likely to miss the mark. Instead, marketing should be tailored to address the specific demand-side aversions present in the target market.
Women have a stronger preference for improved cookstoves than men do (and prefer healthy stoves in particular); however, they appear to lack the decision-making power to purchase the cookstoves. Women are more likely to take and use stoves that are offered for free, but have much greater refusal rates when even small prices are charged. The twin problems suggest that one cannot market only to women in Bangladesh (they do not have the authority to purchase stoves), or only to men (they have a lower preference for improved stoves). The marketing must address both the men’s and women’s preferences and constraints, and thus bundling the product with a characteristic men value (e.g. a cleaner stove that also generates electricity to charge cell phones), may be a promising strategy. We have found that individuals are informed much more by their own experiences with improved cookstoves than by the experiences of their social networks. On the other hand, there is much evidence that people find it too risky to experiment with new technologies and products. A warranty or risk-free trial period can address such concerns, and allow people to learn from their own experience.
