Comment on "Development Effects of Electrification: Evidence from the Topographic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil"

Jörg Ankel-Peters, Gunther Bensch and Colin Vance

No 294, I4R Discussion Paper Series from The Institute for Replication (I4R)

Abstract: Lipscomb, Mobarak, and Barham (2013) document large positive effects of electrification in Brazil due to broad-based improvements in labor productivity. They instrument electrification by simulating a hypothetical power grid roll-out driven solely by geographic factors. Their estimates are not robust to repeated runs of the simulation, which in most cases lead to weak instruments. Furthermore, removing coding errors turns the main outcomes and most originally identified mechanisms statistically insignificant in most of the repeated runs, even when using a specification proposed in a corrigendum published by the original authors.

JEL-codes: C26 C52 O13 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
Note: Forthcoming in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:294

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