Willingness to Pay for Electricity Access in Extreme Poverty : Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Improving electricity access in low-income countries is a challenging problem because of the high costs of grid extension and low demand for grid electricity in rural areas. This study elucidates these constraints by analyzing poor households'...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/968291561033778961/Willingness-to-Pay-for-Electricity-Access-in-Extreme-Poverty-Evidence-from-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31925 |
| Summary: | Improving electricity access in
low-income countries is a challenging problem because of the
high costs of grid extension and low demand for grid
electricity in rural areas. This study elucidates these
constraints by analyzing poor households'
willingness-to-pay for different types of electricity
access, including lower cost off-grid technologies. The
theoretical model illustrates how consumer preferences,
operational and capital costs of electricity service
delivery, and availability of power supply affect
households' decisions to acquire electricity
technology. These effects are then assessed empirically by
estimating beneficiaries' willingness-to-pay for
electricity in three low-income countries that have pockets
of households living in extreme poverty -- Burkina Faso,
Senegal, and Rwanda. Consistent with the theoretical model,
the results indicate very low household willingness-to-pay
for electricity access, and that willingness-to-pay
diminishes as households' income declines. Therefore,
the study recommends concentrating in the nearer term on
ultra-low-cost decentralized off-grid solar technologies in
programs to provide household electricity to the poor in
rural areas. |
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