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Development Effects of Electrification: A Meta-Analysis for Income, Labor and Educational Outcomes

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  • Raul Jimenez Mori

Abstract

Globally, substantial public and private investment has been allocated to electrification, the benefits of which have remained largely, and intuitively, undisputed. However, a close look at the literature suggests that those benefits are far from consistent across different contexts. In fact, estimates of the impacts of electrification are widely heterogeneous and inconclusive. For example, almost 40 percent of the literature’s estimates find no significant effects on income, with similar results for labor and educational outcomes. This paper synthesizes the impact evaluation studies published between the mid-1980s and mid-2019, focusing on the effects of electrification on education, labor and income outcome-categories. Those studies indicate electrification effects (and 95 percent confidence intervals (CI)) of around eight percent in school enrollment (CI=0.04-0.13),17 percent in employment (CI=0.02-0.34), and 24 percent in income (CI= 0.15-0.35).This paper shows, however, that those averages are biased upward, suggesting the presence of selective publication. The meta-regression estimates indicate a mean-corrected, statistically significant effect of 2.6 percent for school enrollment (CI= 0.01-0.04), 5.3 percent for employment (0.04-0.07), and seven percent for income (0.05-0.09). The study design helps explain the estimates’ heterogeneity—i.e., methodologies and data structures requiring less stringent assumptions tend to return lower estimated effects. These findings suggest that the observed heterogeneity reflects actual dispersion in the underlying effects associated with gender differences, as well as, contextual characteristics of the case study, such as country income per-capita and length of the evaluation period.

Suggested Citation

  • Raul Jimenez Mori, 2020. "Development Effects of Electrification: A Meta-Analysis for Income, Labor and Educational Outcomes," Documentos de Trabajo 18096, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
  • Handle: RePEc:col:000518:018096
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Grogan, Louise, 2018. "Time use impacts of rural electrification: Longitudinal evidence from Guatemala," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 304-317.
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    7. Stanley, T. D. & Doucouliagos, Chris, 2007. "Identifying and correcting publication selection bias in the efficiency-wage literature: Heckman Meta-Regression," Working Papers eco_2007_11, Deakin University, Department of Economics.
    8. T. D. Stanley, 2008. "Meta‐Regression Methods for Detecting and Estimating Empirical Effects in the Presence of Publication Selection," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(1), pages 103-127, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pelz, Setu & Pachauri, Shonali & Falchetta, Giacomo, 2023. "Short-run effects of grid electricity access on rural non-farm entrepreneurship and employment in Ethiopia and Nigeria," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    2. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electrification; Income; Schooling; Employment; Publication bias; Meta-analysis.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General

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