Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/222884 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Working paper No. 6-2020
Publisher: 
Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Department of Economics, Frederiksberg
Abstract: 
Access to reliable energy is central to improvements in living standards and is a Sustainable Development Goal. This study moves beyond counting the electrified households and examines the effect of the hours of electricity households receives on their welfare. We hypothesize that additional hours of electricity have different effects on the poor, the middle income and the rich, as well as in rural and urban areas. The methods used are panel fixed effects instrumental variables, cross sectional fixed effects instrumental variables, and logistic regression with data from the Indian Human Development Survey 2005-2012. We focus on extensive and the intensity margins, i.e. how access and additional hours of electricity affect household welfare in terms of consumption expenditure, income, assets and poverty status. The results show large gaps between the benefits and costs of electricity supply among consumer groups. We also find that electricity theft is positively correlated with the net returns from electrification. Progressive pricing with targeted subsidies for the poor can increase household welfare while reducing the financial losses of the State Electricity Boards.
Subjects: 
Reliable Energy
Electrification
Household Welfare
Panel Fixed Effects
Instrumental Variables Approach
JEL: 
D12
D31
E2
I32
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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