A thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1989

The issue of whether households from any income group prefer electricity or LPG over fuel wood or charcoal is of significant interest to policy makers and planners. Thus an analysis of the determinants of fuel and appliance choice is of considerable interest from poli cy and the planning point of view. The basic purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of the urban household choice of a cooking fuel and household appliance ownership in Thailand. The "energy ladder hypothesis" - that is households move to use more sophisticated fuels as their economic status improves is tested in this study. Multinomial logit models are used for the analysis of general cooking fuel choice and rice-cooking fuel choice. Binomial logit models are use for analysis of the determinants of the ownership of major types of home appliances such as: air conditioners, refrigerators, radio tape, etc. The results show that the probabilities of selecting fuel types for both general cooking fuel and rice- cooking fuel depend on the level of household income. Household size factor are found to be inversely related with the probability of households selecting more modern energy. The probabilities of owning appliances are also found to be increase with income levels.