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Too big to be ignored: How energy poverty undermines productive efficiency

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  • Ndubuisi, Gideon
  • Denis, Yuni
  • Urom, Christian
  • Abid, Ilyes

Abstract

Productive efficiency has far-reaching implications on the direction of economic growth and welfare. While this has led to an expansive literature on the drivers of productive efficiency, this literature has proceeded without considering the role of energy poverty. Yet, energy poverty affects productive efficiency on several fronts. This paper fills this knowledge gap, u. sing a sample comprising 100 developing countries for the period 2000–2017. W e found robust evidence suggesting that energy poverty negatively affects productive efficiency—i.e., energy-poor countries become productively inefficient. Further analysis in the paper revealed that this negative effect persists largely across regions and is not sensitive to cross-country differences in income level. We also found that the negative effect of energy poverty on productive efficiency becomes more pronounced at a higher level of productive efficiency. We discuss the policy implications of our findings.

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  • Ndubuisi, Gideon & Denis, Yuni & Urom, Christian & Abid, Ilyes, 2023. "Too big to be ignored: How energy poverty undermines productive efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:181:y:2023:i:c:s030142152300318x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113733
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productive efficiency; Energy poverty; Developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

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