Power outages and economic growth in Africa

Thomas Andersen and Carl-Johan Dalgaard

Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 38, issue C, 19-23

Abstract: This paper estimates the total effect of power outages on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1995–2007. We pay close attention both to potential errors of measurement of African economic growth and to the endogeneity of outages. As suggested by Henderson et al. (American Economic Review 102(2): 994–1028, 2012), we combine Penn World Tables GDP data with satellite-based data on nightlights to arrive at a more accurate measure of economic growth. Following Andersen et al. (Review of Economics and Statistics 94(4): 903–924, 2012), we also employ lightning density as an instrument for power outages. Our results suggest a substantial growth drag of a weak power infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Economic growth; Public utilities; Electricity; Earthlights; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H4 O1 O4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (77)

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Working Paper: Power outages and economic growth in Africa (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:38:y:2013:i:c:p:19-23

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2013.02.016

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