[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/col/000518/018096.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Development Effects of Electrification: A Meta-Analysis for Income, Labor and Educational Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Raul Jimenez Mori
Abstract
Globally, substantial public and private investment has been allocated to electrification, the benefits of which have remained largely, and intuitively, undisputed. However, a close look at the literature suggests that those benefits are far from consistent across different contexts. In fact, estimates of the impacts of electrification are widely heterogeneous and inconclusive. For example, almost 40 percent of the literature’s estimates find no significant effects on income, with similar results for labor and educational outcomes. This paper synthesizes the impact evaluation studies published between the mid-1980s and mid-2019, focusing on the effects of electrification on education, labor and income outcome-categories. Those studies indicate electrification effects (and 95 percent confidence intervals (CI)) of around eight percent in school enrollment (CI=0.04-0.13),17 percent in employment (CI=0.02-0.34), and 24 percent in income (CI= 0.15-0.35).This paper shows, however, that those averages are biased upward, suggesting the presence of selective publication. The meta-regression estimates indicate a mean-corrected, statistically significant effect of 2.6 percent for school enrollment (CI= 0.01-0.04), 5.3 percent for employment (0.04-0.07), and seven percent for income (0.05-0.09). The study design helps explain the estimates’ heterogeneity—i.e., methodologies and data structures requiring less stringent assumptions tend to return lower estimated effects. These findings suggest that the observed heterogeneity reflects actual dispersion in the underlying effects associated with gender differences, as well as, contextual characteristics of the case study, such as country income per-capita and length of the evaluation period.

Suggested Citation

  • Raul Jimenez Mori, 2020. "Development Effects of Electrification: A Meta-Analysis for Income, Labor and Educational Outcomes," Documentos de Trabajo 18096, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000518:018096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://vox.lacea.org/files/Working_Papers/lacea_wps_0042_jimenez.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brodeur, Abel & Cook, Nikolai & Heyes, Anthony, 2018. "Methods Matter: P-Hacking and Causal Inference in Economics," IZA Discussion Papers 11796, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Fisher-Vanden, Karen & Mansur, Erin T. & Wang, Qiong (Juliana), 2015. "Electricity shortages and firm productivity: Evidence from China's industrial firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 172-188.
    3. Barron, Manuel & Torero, Maximo, 2017. "Household electrification and indoor air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 81-92.
    4. Molly Lipscomb & A. Mushfiq Mobarak & Tania Barham, 2013. "Development Effects of Electrification: Evidence from the Topographic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 200-231, April.
    5. Grogan, Louise, 2018. "Time use impacts of rural electrification: Longitudinal evidence from Guatemala," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 304-317.
    6. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Emerick, Kyle & Ravago, Majah-Leah, 2016. "Lighting up the last mile: The bene ts and costs of extending electricity to the rural poor," RFF Working Paper Series dp-16-22-rev, Resources for the Future.
    7. Stanley, T. D. & Doucouliagos, Chris, 2007. "Identifying and correcting publication selection bias in the efficiency-wage literature: Heckman Meta-Regression," Working Papers eco_2007_11, Deakin University, Department of Economics.
    8. T. D. Stanley, 2008. "Meta‐Regression Methods for Detecting and Estimating Empirical Effects in the Presence of Publication Selection," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(1), pages 103-127, February.
    9. Maximo Torero, 2015. "The Impact of Rural Electrification: Challenges and Ways Forward," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 23(HS), pages 49-75.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pelz, Setu & Pachauri, Shonali & Falchetta, Giacomo, 2023. "Short-run effects of grid electricity access on rural non-farm entrepreneurship and employment in Ethiopia and Nigeria," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    2. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kenneth Lee & Edward Miguel & Catherine Wolfram, 2020. "Does Household Electrification Supercharge Economic Development?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 122-144, Winter.
    2. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Ridhima Gupta & Martino Pelli, 2022. "The economics of rural energy use in developing countries," CIRANO Working Papers 2022s-12, CIRANO.
    3. Litzow, Erin L. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Thinley, Tshering, 2019. "Returns to rural electrification: Evidence from Bhutan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 75-96.
    4. Gupta, Ridhima & Pelli, Martino, 2021. "Electrification and cooking fuel choice in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Deutschmann, Joshua W. & Postepska, Agnieszka & Sarr, Leopold, 2021. "Measuring willingness to pay for reliable electricity: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Meles, Tensay Hadush, 2020. "Impact of power outages on households in developing countries: Evidence from Ethiopia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Miguel, Edward & Wolfram, Catherine & Lee, Kenneth, 2016. "Experimental Evidence on the Demand for and Costs of Rural Electrification," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt1s55t761, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    8. Kilimani, Nicholas & Bbaale, Edward & Jeuland, Marc A., 2022. "Unmasking the Mystery of the Varying Benefits from Electrification," EfD Discussion Paper 22-6, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    9. Holstenkamp, Lars, 2019. "What do we know about cooperative sustainable electrification in the global South? A synthesis of the literature and refined social-ecological systems framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 307-320.
    10. Richard S. J. Tol, 2023. "Navigating the energy trilemma during geopolitical and environmental crises," Papers 2301.07671, arXiv.org.
    11. Enrico Nano, 2022. "Electrifying Nigeria: the Impact of Rural Access to Electricity on Kids' Schooling," IHEID Working Papers 03-2022, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    12. Simone Tagliapietra & Giovanni Occhiali & Enrico Nano & Robert Kalcik, 2020. "The impact of electrification on labour market outcomes in Nigeria," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(3), pages 737-779, October.
    13. David Boisclair & Roxane Borgès Da Silva & Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin & Pierre-Carl Michaud & Ingrid Peignier, 2022. "Combien de personnes ont développé des symptômes ou contracté la Covid-19 au Québec ? Une étude exploratoire," CIRANO Working Papers 2022s-05, CIRANO.
    14. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.
    15. Bensch, Gunther & Gotz, Gunnar & Peters, Jörg, 2020. "Effects of rural electrification on employment: A comment on Dinkelman (2011)," Ruhr Economic Papers 840, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Jindrich Matousek & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova, 2022. "Individual discount rates: a meta-analysis of experimental evidence," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(1), pages 318-358, February.
    17. Carlsson, Fredrik & Demeke, Eyoual & Martinsson, Peter & Tesemma, Tewodros, 2020. "Cost of power outages for manufacturing firms in Ethiopia: A stated preference study," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Koima, Josephat, 2024. "School electrification and academic outcomes in rural Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    19. Sebastian Gechert & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Dominika Kolcunova, 2022. "Measuring Capital-Labor Substitution: The Importance of Method Choices and Publication Bias," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 55-82, July.
    20. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Mehmet Ugur & Siew Ling Yew, 2017. "Does Government Size Affect Per-Capita Income Growth? A Hierarchical Meta-Regression Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(300), pages 142-171, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electrification; Income; Schooling; Employment; Publication bias; Meta-analysis.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000518:018096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LACEA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/laceaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.