Demand for Electricity on the Global Electrification Frontier

Robin Burgess, Michael Greenstone, Nicholas Ryan and Anant Sudarshan
Additional contact information
Robin Burgess: Dept of Economics, LSE
Nicholas Ryan: Dept of Economics, Yale University
Anant Sudarshan: Department of Economics, University of Warwick

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: Falling off-grid solar prices and an expanding grid are revolutionizing choices for nearly a billion people without electricity. Using experimental price variation, we estimate demand for all electricity sources in Bihar, India, during a four-year period when electrification leapt from 27% to 64%. We find that: (i) household surplus from electrification increased five-fold; (ii) both solar and the grid boost electrification but households gain more surplus from the grid; (iii) grid investments and subsidies strongly reduce demand for off-grid solar. When we extend the model to eight African countries where grid infrastructure is weaker and subsidies lower we find that off-grid solar often provides higher surplus than the grid. JEL Codes: O13 ; Q41 ; Q21 ; C93

Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-exp and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... 1445_-_sudarshan.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Demand for Electricity on the Global Electrification Frontier (2020)
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:wrk:warwec:1445

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Margaret Nash ().