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Abstract
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is by far the most popular clean cooking fuel in rural
India, but how rural households use it remains poorly understood. Using the 2014-2015
ACCESS survey with over 8,500 households from six energy-poor Indian states, we offer
a broad but detailed survey of LPG use in rural India. We find that (i) fuel costs
are a critical obstacle to widespread adoption, (ii) fuel stacking is the prevailing
norm as few households stop using firewood when adopting LPG, and (iii) both users
and non-users have highly positive views of LPG as a convenient and clean cooking
fuel. These findings show that expanding LPG use offers great promise in rural India,
but affordability prevents a complete transition from traditional biomass to clean
cooking fuels.