Access and Affordability of Electricity in Developing Countries

Harald Winkler, André Felipe Simões, Emilio Lèbre la Rovere, Mozaharul Alam, Atiq Rahman and Stanford Mwakasonda

World Development, 2011, vol. 39, issue 6, 1037-1050

Abstract: Summary A key objective of developing countries is to provide affordable access to modern energy services in order to support economic and social development. The paper presents a number of arguments for why and in which way energy access and affordability can play a key role in national development programs and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Approaches for measuring accessibility and affordability are presented, drawing on case studies of Bangladesh, Brazil, and South Africa, countries with different rates of electrification. Affordability of using electricity is examined in relation to the energy expenditure burden for households and time consumption. Conclusions focus on lessons learned and recommendations for implementing policies, instruments, and regulatory measures to tackle the challenge of affordability.

Keywords: access; affordability; electricity; Bangladesh; Brazil; South; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11000623
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:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:6:p:1037-1050

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

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