Increasing rural electrification through connection campaigns

Blankenship, Brian, Kennedy, Ryan, Mahajan, Aseem, Wong, Jason Chun Yu and Urpelainen, Johannes (2020) Increasing rural electrification through connection campaigns. Energy Policy, 139. ISSN 0301-4215

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Abstract

To reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of universal household electrification by 2030, developing countries are spending billions of dollars to expand access. India, for example, recently undertook an audacious expansion plan which aimed to electrify every household by December 2018. However, there is little academic study of strategies to increase electrification rates. We argue that significant transaction costs inhibit household applications for connections. As evidence, we report the results of a randomized controlled trial (in 200 communities and 2000 households) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, with a treatment consisting of an informational campaign about the costs and procedure of applying. We found that households exposed to the campaign were three times as likely to apply for a connection. Yet actual connection rates remained unchanged. The results suggest that transaction costs are an important barrier to electrification, but limited capacity and incentive to expand connections are equally important.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy-policy
Additional Information:	© 2020 Elsevier Ltd.
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform T Technology G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2020 15:51
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 20:15
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/103919

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