Who Benefits Most from Rural Electrification? Evidence in India

This paper applies an econometric analysis to estimate the average and distribution benefits of rural electrification using rich household survey data from India. The results support that rural electrification helps reduce time allocated to fuel wood collection by household members and increases tim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Energy journal (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 35; no. 2; p. 1
Main Authors Khandker, Shahidur R, Samad, Hussain A, Ali, Rubaba, Barnes, Douglas F
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.01.2014
Subjects
Electricity
Electrification
Garbage collection
Girls
Households
India
Rural
Wood
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Summary:This paper applies an econometric analysis to estimate the average and distribution benefits of rural electrification using rich household survey data from India. The results support that rural electrification helps reduce time allocated to fuel wood collection by household members and increases time allocated to studying by boys and girls. Rural electrification also increases labor supply of men and women, schooling of boys and girls, household per capita income and expenditure. Electrification also helps reduce poverty. But the larger share of benefits accrues to wealthier rural households, with poorer ones having a more limited use of electricity. The analysis also shows that restricted supply of electricity, due to frequent power outages, negatively affects both household electricity connection and its consumption, thereby reducing the expected benefits of rural electrification. [PUBLICATIONABSTRACT]
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ISSN:0195-6574