Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
Entrepreneurs in developing countries report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts impact the micro firms that account for the majority of employment. This paper estimates the effects...
| 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/652241576769009597/Lights-Off-Lights-On-The-Effects-of-Electricity-Shortages-on-Small-Firms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33101 |
| Summary: | Entrepreneurs in developing countries
report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious
constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts
impact the micro firms that account for the majority of
employment. This paper estimates the effects of outages on
small firms using original firm-level panel data and finds
evidence of differential effects by firm size. Firms without
employees experience large reductions in revenues and
profits. Outages have no measurable effect on the output of
firms with employees, where worker hours increase, weekly
wages paid decrease, and the analysis fails to reject that
blackouts have no effect on (average firm-level) worker
hourly wages. |
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