Rurality Forcing the Lights On: Is This Worth It?

Toyin B. Ajibade, Ezekiel T. Ajibade, Abdulazeez Muhammad-Lawal and Waliyat Oloyede

No 334560, 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK from Agricultural Economics Society - AES

Abstract: Energy shortage is a major concern in Nigeria. Albeit its abundance, fossil fuel is no viable solution considering varied pollution. Renewable energy technology like solar-powered-hubfor-homes is gaining prominence. The technology positions to address energy deficit in rural households but first, household decision makers’ question of whether such investment is worth its cost demands answers. We assessed impact of this technology on wellbeing of adopting rural farming households in Nigeria and explored the drivers of its diffusion. Designing a Quasi-experiment, we randomly assigned 73 subscribers into treatment group and 219 nonelectrified households into control group. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, PSM, and probit regression. We found adoption increased wellbeing of adopters over nonadopters(p<0.05) confirming our hypothesis that access to stand-alone solar-powered energy by off-grid rural households can potentially improve adopter’s personal wellbeing. We found that household and remittance incomes, within-household school-aged children, payment flexibility, subsidy scheme, peer effect and pursuit of life’s ease increased the probability of the technology adoption whereas increase in age, proximity to town and fossil fuel access negatively influenced its adoption (p<0.05). We recommended government subsidy on the technology. Diffusion may be aided by peer effect hence the recommendation to influence key individuals to adopt.

Keywords: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/334560/files/AES2023_Rurality.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ags:aesc23:334560

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.334560

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK from Agricultural Economics Society - AES Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().