How does energy matter? Rural electrification, entrepreneurship, and community development in Kenya

Antoine Vernet, Jane N.O. Khayesi, Vivian George, Gerard George and Abubakar S. Bahaj

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 126, issue C, 88-98

Abstract: We examine the impact of rural electrification on individuals and businesses within a community in order to test a resource-based theory of entrepreneurship. We show that access to electricity increases average households’ income and entrepreneurial activities. The impact of electricity on entrepreneurial activity has wide-ranging implications for development policy in countries where access to electricity is sparse. Results show a significant difference in entrepreneurial opportunities with respect to firm formation, with the electrified site reporting more new micro-enterprises (33) than the control site (20) after implementation. Electrification affects both households’ income, individuals’ perceptions of their social position, and opportunities for business development. Individuals’ future expectations and entrepreneurial activities are enhanced in the community that receives electricity. We also find evidence that women-led households benefit from electrification more than men-led ones, but this benefit does not eliminate the difference in income between women and men-led household. We discuss implications of the study for entrepreneurship and community social development interventions.

Keywords: Kenya; Entrepreneurship; Rural electrification; Experiment; Microenterprise; Community development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518307365
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:enepol:v:126:y:2019:i:c:p:88-98

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.11.012

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

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