Against China’s tightening cultivated land ecological constraints, clarifying how the New Rural Collective Economy (NRCE) affects Cultivated Land Use Ecological Efficiency (CLUEE) is critical for advancing agricultural sustainability in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). Using 714 panel data observations from 42 prefecture-level cities in the YREB from 2009 to 2025, this study measures CLUEE efficiency via SBM-DEA and quantifies the NRCE via the entropy weight method. Two-way fixed effects models estimate the impact, while two-step mediation analysis explores underlying mechanisms. Results show NRCE significantly boosts CLUEE, with each 1-unit increase in NRCE level driving a 0.1633-unit improvement in CLUEE, and findings remain robust after endogeneity correction. Mediation analysis reveals indirect effects via land-scale management, agricultural socialized services, and green technology innovation. This study innovatively clarifies the endogenous institutional driving effect of rural collective economic reform on CLUEE, filling the research gap of ignoring rural organizational institutional factors in existing CLUEE research. The findings provide empirical evidence and theoretical support for optimizing the construction of rural collective economic organizations and formulating differentiated cultivated land ecological governance policies in the YREB, so as to effectively unlock the ecological dividend of rural institutional innovation and facilitate coordinated ecological and economic development of cultivated land.

Introduction: Household adoption of clean cooking energy (CCE) is critical for reducing household air pollution and advancing sustainable development. While previous studies have primarily emphasized economic, demographic, and policy determinants of CCE adoption, limited attention has been paid to whether early-life institutional experiences exert lasting influences on household energy choices. Drawing on imprinting theory and the life course perspective, this study examines whether household heads’ military experience (ME) is associated with subsequent household CCE adoption. Methods: Using six waves (2012–2022) of panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study investigates the association between household heads’ ME and household CCE adoption. A series of robustness, instrumental-variable, mechanism, and heterogeneity analyses are conducted to assess the stability of the findings and explore potential pathways and boundary conditions. Results: The results show that household heads’ ME significantly increases the likelihood of household CCE adoption. Mechanism analyses provide evidence consistent with three potential channels: enhanced non-cognitive abilities, higher household income, and greater social capital. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the association is more statistically robust among households with higher environmental awareness, rural household registration, and those located in coal-poor provinces. Additional analyses suggest that the imprinting effect is stronger among individuals with longer military service but gradually weakens as the time since discharge increases. Conclusion: The findings suggest that military experience may have persistent implications for household environmental behavior beyond the period of service. By integrating the life course perspective into imprinting theory, this study extends understanding of how early institutional experiences can shape later household energy choices and provides implications for promoting China’s household clean energy transition.