Benefits of Electrification and the Role of Reliability : Evidence from India

Samad, Hussain ; Zhang, Fan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: rural electrification;    reliability;    electricity;    distributional impact;    quantile regression;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7889
RP-ID  :  WPS7889

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper estimates the welfare impactof rural electrification in India using nationallyrepresentative household panel survey data for 2005 and2012. Analysis based on a propensity-score-weightedfixed-effects model finds that while electrification isassociated with a broad range of social and economicbenefits, the size of the effects depends importantly on thereliability of electricity service. Gaining access toelectricity combined with a reliable power supply isassociated with a 17 percent increase in income during thesample period, but gaining access to electricity alone isassociated with only a 9.6 percent increase in income. Thenet gain from both increasing the access rate and reducingpower outages in rural India is estimated to be US$11billion a year. Moreover, India's rural electrificationpolicy appears to be progressive because lower-incomehouseholds benefit more from access to electricity thanhigher-income households during the sample period.