Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis

Obsa Urgessa Ayana () and Jima Degaga
Additional contact information
Obsa Urgessa Ayana: Ambo University
Jima Degaga: Ambo University

International Review of Economics, 2022, vol. 69, issue 2, No 4, 209-261

Abstract: Abstract There is almost a consensus that electrification improves household well-being. However, review of existing literature reveals mixed and inconclusive results. Thus, this study is conducted to objectively summarize the effect-size estimates from primary studies, to identify the degree of publication bias and underlying genuine effects using meta-regression-analysis. We also examined the sources of heterogeneity in effect-size estimates from primary studies. We synthesized effect size estimates from those studies focusing on the effects of rural electrification on income, education, employment, time use and women empowerment using meta-regression approach. Indeed, our finding indicates that rural electrification improves rural household welfare. The result shows that there is genuine effect of rural electrification on household welfare indicators after publication bias is filtered out. Specifically, our finding shows that rural electrification has a statistically significant positive genuine effect on household education, employment, income, time uses and women empowerment. However, the study did not find strong evidence for the presence of publication selection for the included welfare outcomes, except for educational outcome. Therefore, collaborative interventions by national governments, international development assistance programs and donor agencies can play a crucial role in the provision of electricity to the poor households in least developed countries (LDCs) to change their life.

Keywords: Rural; Effect; Electrification; Meta-regression; Publication bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C11 C21 Q40 R29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12232-022-00391-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:inrvec:v:69:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s12232-022-00391-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cy/journal/12232/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s12232-022-00391-7

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics is currently edited by Luigino Bruni

More articles in International Review of Economics from Springer, Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().