Willingness to pay for electricity access in extreme poverty: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

Maximiliane Sievert and Jevgenijs Steinbuks

World Development, 2020, vol. 128, issue C

Abstract: Improving electricity access in low-income countries is complicated because of high service costs and low electricity consumption levels in rural areas. This study elucidates this problem by analyzing poor Sub-Saharan African households’ willingness-to-pay for different types of electricity access, including both grid and lower cost off-grid technologies. We show both theoretically and empirically that at low levels of income, low-cost decentralized off-grid solar technologies provide the highest utility from the households’ perspective. We, therefore, recommend concentrating the near-term rural household electrification efforts on these technologies.

Keywords: Electricity access; Extreme poverty; Sub-Saharan Africa; Willingness-to-pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O13 O55 Q42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Working Paper: Willingness to Pay for Electricity Access in Extreme Poverty: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:128:y:2020:i:c:s0305750x1930508x

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104859

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