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Abstract: This paper focuses on a detailed analysis of the current situation, characteristics and, most important of all, the decision-making process of sustainable consumption behaviors (SCB) of the rural residents in China. Data were gathered from surveys conducted in 35 different municipalities or counties, with a total of 1403 questionnaires randomly distributed in 50 villages among these 35 selected regions. Based on the descriptive analysis, we reveal the current situation of the rural residents' SCB and the affecting factors, including behavioral intention, environmental knowledge, perception of consequence, environmental responsibility, environmental value, perceived behavioral control, response efficacy, environmental sensitivity and also the contextual factors. The paper also uses the path analysis to clarify the decision-making process of SCB. The results show that behavioral intention plays the most important role in explaining the behaviors, while the explanatory power of the psychological variable is low in the explanation of the overall SCB and its sub-categories. Furthermore, implications for public policy and the directions of future researches are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on household-level survey data collected from Qinghai Province of China, we estimated the greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions from spatial perspectives, including household energy consumption in pastoral, agropastoral, and agricultural zones. The findings suggest that the total annual GHG and pollutant emissions per capita in the area was 2296.32 kg per year. The highest amount of pollutants was emitted from the pastoral zones, followed by the agropastoral and agricultural zones. CO 2 is the primary GHG emitted by household energy consumption. Dung burning was the cause of the high PM 2.5 emissions in the pastoral areas, while the use of coal was the primary cause of GHG and pollutant emissions in the agropastoral and agricultural zones. • We used empirical data from rural households in Qinghai, China. • This paper indicates the reliance of local energy consumption on non-commercial energy. • We estimate greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions resulting from solid-fuel combustion. • We compare indoor pollutant emissions from pastoral, agropastoral, and agricultural zones spatially. • This paper provides policy recommendations for energy transition towards clean energy. Energy consumption in the household sector has become an important issue in China's energy consumption and an important unit of China's clean energy transformation. Currently, the potential air pollution, carbon emissions and health risks caused by energy consumption in many areas cannot be ignored, and refined and regionalized index-based research data necessary to support decision making are lacking. Based on household-level survey data collected from Qinghai Province, China, we estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions from spatial perspectives, including household energy consumption in pastoral, agropastoral, and agricultural zones. The findings suggest that the total annual GHG and pollutant emissions per capita in the area was 2296.32 kg per year. The highest amount of pollutants was emitted from the pastoral zones, followed by the agropastoral and agricultural zones. CO 2 is the primary GHG emitted by household energy consumption. Dung burning was the cause of the high PM 2.5 emissions in the pastoral areas, while the use of coal was the primary cause of GHG and pollutant emissions in the agropastoral and agricultural zones. These findings highlight the need to integrate household energy policies with rural development to enable a complete transition towards cleaner fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Microcredit has gained worldwide acceptance in recent years as a flexible mechanism to expand individuals’ (especially the poor''s) access to financial services, which is considered as an efficient way to achieve poverty reduction and other social development. A large number of empirical studies have been done to examine the welfare effects of microcredit on the borrowers and such effects are well documented in many other countries such as Bangladesh. However, the impacts of microcredit on China rural households’ livelihood are not well documented. This paper attempts to empirically evaluate the impact of microcredit on household welfare outcomes such as income and consumption in rural China. The estimation is based on the difference-in-difference approach which is an increasingly popular method of tackling the selection bias issue in assessing the impacts of microcredit. The study uses a two-year panel dataset, including both primary and secondary data collected through a household survey in rural China. Our empirical results favour the wide belief in the literature that joining microcredit programme helps improve households’ welfare such as income and consumption. Despite the optimistic findings on how microcredit has changed the rural households’ living conditions, our results show that the vast majority of the programme participants are non-poor, which casts some doubts on the social potential (such as poverty reduction) of China''s microcredit programmes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]