The market-based dissemination of energy-access technologies as a business model for rural entrepreneurs: Evidence from Kenya

Gunther Bensch, Jochen Kluve and Jonathan Stöterau

Resource and Energy Economics, 2021, vol. 66, issue C

Abstract: Improving access to more modern forms of energy requires supply chains that reach further into rural areas. This paper studies a supply-side intervention intended to foster last-mile distribution of energy-access technologies through local small-scale entrepreneurship. We use a staggered-implementation evaluation design to assess the impact on employment and income outcomes of the intervention, which is a large-scale program in Kenya that supports the diffusion of improved cookstoves and small solar products. The results demonstrate how trained entrepreneurs intensify and diversify their income-generating activities, often by shifting away from subsistence farming as a main source of income. For cookstove entrepreneurs, this goes along with improvements in individual and household incomes as well as perceived economic well-being. Our estimates suggest that impacts do not only differ between the two technologies but also across subgroups including gender, age, and baseline occupation. Our findings substantiate that market-based interventions can foster energy access in rural areas by supporting the establishment of local businesses. We highlight several contextual factors that are of relevance when considering the adoption of this approach.

Keywords: Energy access; Cookstoves; Impact evaluation; Entrepreneurship training; Business development services; Covariate balancing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 L26 O13 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:resene:v:66:y:2021:i:c:s0928765521000336

DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2021.101248

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