Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v43y2022i2p215-238.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Electrification and Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women in India

Author

Listed:
  • Ashish Kumar Sedai
  • Rabindra Nepal
  • Tooraj Jamasb
Abstract
This study moves beyond the consensus of counting electrified households as a measure of progress in gender energy parity. Using the India Human Development Survey, we examine the effect of reliability of electrification on empowerment of women in terms of economic autonomy, agency, mobility and decision-making abilities, underscoring the labor market and respite effects of service reliability. We develop a comprehensive set of empowerment indices using principal component analysis and assess the causal effects of power outages on the indices with instrumental variable regressions while controlling for individual, household, district and caste characteristics. Results show that reliability of electricity lias significant positive effects on all empowerment indices and improves women’s labor market outcomes, however, the effects differ at the margin of deficiency, location, living standards and education. The study recommends policy focus on electrification from a gendered lens for cost-effective solutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashish Kumar Sedai & Rabindra Nepal & Tooraj Jamasb, 2022. "Electrification and Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women in India," The Energy Journal, , vol. 43(2), pages 215-238, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:43:y:2022:i:2:p:215-238
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.43.2.ased
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.43.2.ased
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.43.2.ased?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shahidur R. Khandker, Hussain A. Samad, Rubaba Ali, and Douglas F. Barnes, 2014. "Who Benefits Most from Rural Electrification? Evidence in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    2. Taryn Dinkelman, 2011. "The Effects of Rural Electrification on Employment: New Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3078-3108, December.
    3. Jain, Varinder, 2018. "Powering India at Household Level: State Effort, Issues and Concerns," MPRA Paper 87170, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Semykina, Anastasia & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2010. "Estimating panel data models in the presence of endogeneity and selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 157(2), pages 375-380, August.
    5. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Pelli, Martino & Ural Marchand, Beyza, 2014. "Does the quality of electricity matter? Evidence from rural India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 228-247.
    6. C.P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh, 2018. "The Financialization of Finance? Demonetization and the Dubious Push to Cashlessness in India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 420-436, March.
    7. Sebastian Baixeras Donoso & Yener Altunbaş & Alper Kara, 2011. "The Rationale Behind Informal Finance: Evidence from Roscas in Bolivia," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 45(1), pages 191-208, July-Dece.
    8. Michaël Aklin & Chao-yo Cheng & Johannes Urpelainen & Karthik Ganesan & Abhishek Jain, 2016. "Factors affecting household satisfaction with electricity supply in rural India," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 1-6, November.
    9. Samad,Hussain A. & Zhang,Fan, 2019. "Electrification and Women's Empowerment : Evidence from Rural India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8796, The World Bank.
    10. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    11. Min,Brian & O'Keeffe,Zachary & Zhang,Fan, 2017. "Whose power gets cut ? using high-frequency satellite images to measure power supply irregularity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8131, The World Bank.
    12. Robin Burgess & Michael Greenstone & Nicholas Ryan & Anant Sudarshan, 2020. "The Consequences of Treating Electricity as a Right," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 145-169, Winter.
    13. World Bank, 2014. "Global Financial Development Report 2014 : Financial Inclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16238.
    14. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Report 2014 [Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial 2014, Riesgo y oportunidad : la administración del riesgo como instrumento de desarrollo - Panorama general]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16092.
    15. Kanagawa, Makoto & Nakata, Toshihiko, 2008. "Assessment of access to electricity and the socio-economic impacts in rural areas of developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2016-2029, June.
    16. Jie Bai & Seema Jayachandran & Edmund J Malesky & Benjamin A Olken, 2019. "Firm Growth and Corruption: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(618), pages 651-677.
    17. Parikh, Jyoti, 2011. "Hardships and health impacts on women due to traditional cooking fuels: A case study of Himachal Pradesh, India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7587-7594.
    18. Bansal, Mohit & Saini, R.P. & Khatod, D.K., 2013. "Development of cooking sector in rural areas in India—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 44-53.
    19. Gould, Carlos F. & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2018. "LPG as a clean cooking fuel: Adoption, use, and impact in rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 395-408.
    20. Kohlin, Gunnar & Sills, Erin O. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Wilfong, Christopher, 2011. "Energy, gender and development: what are the linkages ? where is the evidence ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5800, The World Bank.
    21. Rao, Narasimha D., 2013. "Does (better) electricity supply increase household enterprise income in India?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 532-541.
    22. Daniel F. McCaffrey & J. R. Lockwood & Kata Mihaly & Tim R. Sass, 2012. "A review of Stata commands for fixed-effects estimation in normal linear models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(3), pages 406-432, September.
    23. Kennedy, Ryan & Mahajan, Aseem & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2019. "Quality of service predicts willingness to pay for household electricity connections in rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 319-326.
    24. Ludovica Cherchi & Markus Goldstein & James Habyarimana & Joao Montalvao & Michael O'Sullivan & Chris Udry & Ariel Gruver, 2019. "Empowering Women Through Equal Land Rights," World Bank Publications - Reports 31513, The World Bank Group.
    25. Robin Burgess & Michael Greenstone & Nicholas Ryan & Anant Sudarshan, 2020. "The Consequences of Treating Electricity as a Right," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 145-169, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.
    2. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Jamasb, Tooraj & Nepal, Rabindra & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Electrification and welfare for the marginalized: Evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl, 2021. "The effect of blackouts on household electrification status: Evidence from Kenya," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Amin, Sakib Bin & Chowdhury, Mainul Islam & Jamasb, Tooraj & Khan, Farhan & Nepal, Rabindra, 2023. "Green Energy Finance and Gender Disparity: The Case of Mountain Areas in Bangladesh," Working Papers 2-2023, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    5. Su, Qinghe & Azam, Mehtabul, 2023. "Does access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reduce the household burden of women? Evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Vasudevan, Ramaa & Pena, Anita Alves & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Does reliable electrification reduce gender differences? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 580-601.
    7. Bigerna, Simona & Choudhary, Piyush & Kumar Jain, Nikunj & Micheli, Silvia & Polinori, Paolo, 2022. "Avoiding unanticipated power outages: households’ willingness to pay in India," MPRA Paper 114160, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Sumit Dey & Vandana Upadhyay & Manish Chouhan, 2022. "‘What Determines Socio-Economic Status and What Reflects It?’—Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 7(2), pages 206-220, July.
    9. Aweke, Abinet Tilahun & Navrud, Ståle, 2022. "Valuing energy poverty costs: Household welfare loss from electricity blackouts in developing countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    10. Su, Qinghe & Azam, Mehtabul, 2022. "Does Access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Reduce Women Household Burden? Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 15842, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Bigerna, Simona & Choudhary, Piyush & Jain, Nikunj Kumar & Micheli, Silvia & Polinori, Paolo, 2024. "An empirical investigation of the Indian households’ willingness to pay to avoid power outages," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Vasudevan, Ramaa & Pena, Anita Alves & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Does reliable electrification reduce gender differences? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 580-601.
    2. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Jamasb, Tooraj & Nepal, Rabindra & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Electrification and welfare for the marginalized: Evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Nepal, Rabindra & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2021. "Flickering lifelines: Electrification and household welfare in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Richmond, Jennifer & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2019. "Electrification and appliance ownership over time: Evidence from rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Gupta, Ridhima & Pelli, Martino, 2021. "Electrification and cooking fuel choice in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    6. Bajo-Buenestado, Raúl, 2021. "The effect of blackouts on household electrification status: Evidence from Kenya," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Amin, Sakib Bin & Chowdhury, Mainul Islam & Jamasb, Tooraj & Khan, Farhan & Nepal, Rabindra, 2023. "Green Energy Finance and Gender Disparity: The Case of Mountain Areas in Bangladesh," Working Papers 2-2023, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    8. Enrico Nano, 2022. "Electrifying Nigeria: the Impact of Rural Access to Electricity on Kids' Schooling," IHEID Working Papers 03-2022, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    9. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.
    10. Xiao, Han & Zheng, Xinye & Xie, Lunyu, 2022. "Promoting pro-poor growth through infrastructure investment: Evidence from the Targeted Poverty Alleviation program in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Pradhan Shrestha, Rosy & Jirakiattikul, Sopin & Lohani, Sunil Prasad & Shrestha, Mandip, 2023. "Perceived impact of electricity on productive end use and its reality: Transition from electricity to income for rural Nepalese women," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    12. Richard S. J. Tol, 2023. "Navigating the energy trilemma during geopolitical and environmental crises," Papers 2301.07671, arXiv.org.
    13. Su, Qinghe & Azam, Mehtabul, 2023. "Does access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reduce the household burden of women? Evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Deutschmann, Joshua W. & Postepska, Agnieszka & Sarr, Leopold, 2021. "Measuring willingness to pay for reliable electricity: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    15. Salmon, Claire & Tanguy, Jeremy, 2016. "Rural Electrification and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 48-68.
    16. Acheampong, Alex O. & Erdiaw-Kwasie, Michael Odei & Abunyewah, Matthew, 2021. "Does energy accessibility improve human development? Evidence from energy-poor regions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    17. Blankenship, Brian & Kennedy, Ryan & Mahajan, Aseem & Wong, Jason Chun Yu & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2020. "Increasing rural electrification through connection campaigns," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    18. Bayer, Patrick & Kennedy, Ryan & Yang, Joonseok & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2020. "The need for impact evaluation in electricity access research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Khanna, Shefali & Rowe, Kevin, 2024. "The long-run value of electricity reliability in India," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Sedai, Ashish Kumar, 2021. "Who Benefits from Piped Water in the House? Empirical Evidence from a Gendered Analysis in India," ADBI Working Papers 1273, Asian Development Bank Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women empowerment; Reliable electricity; Labor Market; Principal Component Analysis; Instrumental Variables;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:43:y:2022:i:2:p:215-238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.