The Economics of Household Air Pollution Marc Jeuland, 1,2, Subhrendu K. Pattanayak, 1,2,3,4 and Randall Bluffstone 5 1 Sanford School of Public Policy, 2 Duke Global Health Institute, 3 Nicholas School of the Environment, and 4 Department of Economics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27517; email: marc.jeuland@duke.edu, subhrendu.pattanayak@duke.edu 5 Department of Economics, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon 97207; email: bluffsto@pdx.edu Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 2015. 7:81–108 First published online as a Review in Advance on July 8, 2015 The Annual Review of Resource Economics is online at resource.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-resource-100814-125048 Copyright © 2015 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved JEL codes: D13, I12, I31, O13, Q40, Q53  Corresponding author Keywords air quality, household cooking, respiratory illness, health behavior, household production Abstract Traditional energy technologies and consumer products contribute to household well-being in diverse ways but also often harm household air quality. We review the problem of household air pollution at a global scale, focusing particularly on the harmful effects of tradi- tional cooking and heating. Drawing on the theory of household pro- duction, we illustrate the ambiguous relationship between household well-being and adoption of behaviors and technologies that reduce air pollution. We then review how the theory relates to the seemingly con- tradictory findings emerging from the literature on developing coun- try household demand for clean fuels and stoves. In conclusion, we describe an economics research agenda to close the knowledge gaps so that policies and programs can be designed and evaluated to solve the global household air pollution problem. 81 Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 2015.7:81-108. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by 34.228.24.229 on 07/17/20. For personal use only.