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A ladder within a ladder: Understanding the factors influencing a household's domestic use of electricity in four African countries

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  • Rahut, Dil Bahadur
  • Behera, Bhagirath
  • Ali, Akhter
  • Marenya, Paswel

Abstract

According to the energy ladder hypothesis, electricity is at the top of the energy ladder of household energy use that depends primarily on wealth status, income and education levels of the users. However, it is often observed that households with higher income, wealth, and education levels do not use electricity for all domestic activities such as lighting, heating, and cooking, creating a ladder within a ladder. Using a comprehensive data set from the Living Standard Measurement Study from four African countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda), covering >17,000 households, this paper investigates the factors determining a household's adoption of electricity for lighting only and for lighting and cooking. The results of a multinomial logit model and an ordered probit model show that demographic characteristics, a household's wealth and human capital, access to markets and remoteness greatly accelerate a household's use of electricity for light and cooking, which provides evidence of a ladder within a ladder.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter & Marenya, Paswel, 2017. "A ladder within a ladder: Understanding the factors influencing a household's domestic use of electricity in four African countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 167-181.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:66:y:2017:i:c:p:167-181
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2017.05.020
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth; Education; Access to infrastructure; Energy use; Ladder; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

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