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Is low coverage of modern infrastructure services in African cities due to lack of demand or lack of supply ?

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  • Wodon, Quentin
  • Banerjee, Sudeshna
  • Diallo, Amadou Bassirou
  • Foster, Vivien

Abstract

A majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is not connected to electricity and piped water networks, and even in urban areas coverage is low. Lack of network coverage may be due to demand or supply-side factors. Some households may live in areas where access to piped water and electricity is feasible, but may not be able to pay for those services. Other households may be able to afford the services, but may live too far from the electric line or water pipe to have a choice to be connected to it. Given that the policy options for dealing with demand as opposed to supply-side issues are fairly different, it is important to try to measure the contributions of both types of factors in preventing better coverage of infrastructure services in the population. This paper shows how this can be done empirically using household survey data and provides results on the magnitude of both types of factors in explaining the coverage deficit of piped water and electricity services in urban areas for a large sample of African countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Wodon, Quentin & Banerjee, Sudeshna & Diallo, Amadou Bassirou & Foster, Vivien, 2009. "Is low coverage of modern infrastructure services in African cities due to lack of demand or lack of supply ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4881, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4881
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fay, Marianne & Yepes, Tito, 2003. "Investing in infrastructure : what is needed from 2000 to 2010?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3102, The World Bank.
    2. Estache, Antonio, 2004. "Emerging infrastructure policy issues in developing countries - a survey of the recent economic literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3442, The World Bank.
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2007:i:4:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Antonio Estache & Quentin Wodon, 2014. "Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-34848-7, September.
    5. Kristin Komives & Vivien Foster & Jonathan Halpern & Quentin Wodon, 2005. "Water, Electricity, and the Poor : Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6361, December.
    6. Kayaga, Sam & Franceys, Richard, 2007. "Costs of urban utility water connections: Excessive burden to the poor," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 270-277, December.
    7. Komives, Kristin & Whittington, Dale & Wu, Xun, 2001. "Infrastructure coverage and the poor : the global perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2551, The World Bank.
    8. Sudeshna Banerjee & Amadou Bassirou Diallo & Quentin Wodon, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Access to Modern Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Results from Demographic and Health Surveys," World Bank Publications - Reports 9553, The World Bank Group.
    9. Diego Angel-Urdinola & Quentin Wodon, 2007. "Do Utility Subsidies Reach the Poor? Framework and Evidence for Cape Verde, Sao Tome, and Rwanda," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 9(4), pages 1-7.
    10. Angel-Urdinola, Diego & Cosgrove-Davies, Malcolm & Wodon, Quentin, 2006. "Rwanda: Electricity Tariff Reform," MPRA Paper 9044, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Antonio Estache & V. Foster & Q. Wodon, 2002. "Accounting for Poverty in Infrastructure Reform: Learning from Latin America's Experience," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44108, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Infrastructure and Poverty: Part 2 – Are Household Needs Being Met?
      by Rotarian Economist in Rotarian Economist on 2014-11-16 17:00:12

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    Cited by:

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    Keywords

    Currencies and Exchange Rates; Economic Theory&Research; Geographical Information Systems; Markets and Market Access;
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