Gendered demand for environmental health technologies: Evidence of complementarities from stove auctions in India

Abstract

We study if prior exposure to one environmental health technology – improved sanitation – complements or substitutes for additional household investments in another such technology — an electric induction cookstove. We conducted a cookstove demand revealing auction ten years after a random half of our sample had been exposed to an intensive sanitation promotion campaign in rural India. We observe that demand for induction cookstoves among men seems to be affected by information they obtain following the sanitation intervention, whereas preferences and demand among women, who likely have more at stake, are unchanged. This points to the importance of understanding interactions between gender, information, knowledge, and preferences for technology, and decision-making power over adoption of the solutions needed to achieve environmental health targets.