Impact of rural-urban energy equality on environmental sustainability and the role of governance

Eric Evans Osei Opoku, Alex Acheampong and Olufemi Adewale Aluko

Journal of Policy Modeling, 2024, vol. 46, issue 2, 304-335

Abstract: Globally, rural areas suffer from less infrastructure relative to urban areas. Political and development economists have mainly attributed this disparity in infrastructure distribution to governance. The literature has sufficiently discussed the role that rural-urban infrastructure inequality plays in development outcomes such as poverty. However, not much is known about the effect of the rural-urban infrastructure gap on the environment. To contribute to knowledge and policy discussions, we investigate the impact of rural-urban energy access (in)equality on environmental degradation and the role governance plays using data from 47 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000–2020. Evidence from the heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable regression consistent with Driscoll and Kraay's estimation revealed that bridging rural-urban energy access inequality is associated with reduction in environmental degradation. We also documented that the direct effect of the governance-related variables used is mixed. The moderation and marginal effect estimates showed that improving governance quality conditions equality in rural-urban energy access to reduce environmental degradation. From a policy perspective, these findings suggest that the implementation of rural electrification policies supported by a good governance system would play a crucial role in mitigating environmental degradation in developing countries.

Keywords: Rural-urban energy equality; Energy equality; Governance; Environmental degradation; Sub-Saharan Africa; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O55 Q23 Q48 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:46:y:2024:i:2:p:304-335

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.004

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