Who benefits from the decentralised energy system (DES)? Evidence from Nepal’s micro-hydropower (MHP)

Mukti Nath Subedi, Bishal Bharadwaj and Shuddhasattwa Rafiq

Energy Economics, 2023, vol. 120, issue C

Abstract: In low-income countries, uneven access to clean energy poses a challenge to reducing socioeconomic inequalities across gender and disadvantaged groups. Development planners view the decentralised energy system (DES) as having the potential to help address this issue, because it provides electricity access in areas where the national electricity grid is not available. This study assesses whether the DES helps to reduce inequality and improve gender empowerment by focusing on the micro-hydropower (MHP) scheme, a form of DES adopted widely in Nepal, and studying its impact on educational attainments and employment outcomes by caste and gender. The results show that MHP improves educational outcomes and facilitates a labour shift from traditional agriculture to waged and salaried jobs. However, a disaggregated analysis shows that, while the educational outcome of access to MHP electricity is higher for women and lower caste individuals, the positive employment-related effects are inclined towards socially dominant groups such as males and upper caste individuals. This shows that, while the DES improves educational outcomes in general, complementary conditions may be necessary to achieve significant improvements in the employment of women and lower caste individuals.

Keywords: Decentralised energy system; Education; Labour market; Caste; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J15 Q42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323000907
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:120:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323000907

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106592

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().