Consuming more electricity equals earning more money?—The research of relationship between electricity and income in rural areas

This paper explores the relationship between energy consumption and money earning in order to explain the level of living in rural areas. Other researches generally focus on the external factors, such as agricultural investment, fiscal expenditure, supply of public goods, planting of cash crops, and so on. This paper focuses on the factor of energy consumption in rural areas, especially on the amount of electricity consumption which is considered to be a very important factor. It will influence the living standard of rural residents by two different ways. One of it is directly improving the lifestyle of rural areas, and another is indirectly influencing the living standard by earning more money, which through the affecting of working time and types of work by electricity consumption. This paper examines these two different ways, and proposes some targeted resolutions of improving living standard of rural residents.