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We know surprisingly little about the long-run impacts of household electrification. This paper studies the impacts on consumption in rural India over a 17-year period, allowing for both internal and external (village-level) effects. Under our identifying assumptions, electrification brought significant consumption gains for households who acquired electricity for their own use. We also find evidence of a dynamic effect of village connectivity for households without electricity themselves. This is suggestive of an external effect, which also comes with a shift in consumption spending suggestive of status concerns among those still without electricity. Labor earnings were an important channel of impact. This was mainly through extra work by men. There was no effect on average wage rates.

Sub-Saharan Africa is considered a region with enormous economic and demographic potential. One of the main challenges it faces, included in the “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, implemented by the African Union”, is to provide access to electricity. Currently, 600 million inhabitants of the African continent do not have access to electricity, which is a significant limiting factor for further economic growth and socio-economic development. Moreover, the measures taken by individual Sub-Saharan African countries appear insufficient in the face of rapid population growth. The aim of the article is to analyse the opportunities and challenges of the development of Sub-Saharan Africa’s energy sector. This raises the following research question: to what extent can a sustainable energy transition be achieved in sub-Saharan African countries to ensure access to electricity? The study used Ward’s hierarchical clustering method, classification and regression tree analysis, and the distance-weighted least squares method. The results show that the level of development of the energy sector in the individual countries of Sub-Saharan Africa varies greatly. Moreover, the Sub-Saharan African region is exposed to the effects of climate change, which also affects the development of the energy sector and whether or not access to electricity can be ensured. The study contributes to assessments of the adaptive capacity and transformative potential of the energy sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is particularly important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 7, which relates to building more robust and efficient systems, as well as implementing diversified energy sources. This research is crucial to bridge the energy access gap and build a resilient and sustainable economy in Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

PurposeDriven by the Sustainable Development Goals (goals 7, 8, 12 and 13), this study investigates the moderating role of financial development in the link between energy poverty and a sustainable environment in African nations.Design/methodology/approachPanel cointegration analysis, fully modified least squares, Driscoll and Kraay least squares and method of moments quantile regression were used as estimation techniques to examine the link between financial development, energy poverty and sustainable environment for 28 African nations. Energy poverty is measured using two proxies-access to clean energy and access to electricity, while the environment is gauged using ecological footprint.FindingsThe regression outcomes show that access to clean energy and electricity negatively impacts the ecological footprint across all the quantiles; hence, energy poverty increases environmental degradation. Financial development positively influences environmental degradation in the region at the upper quantiles. Similarly, the interactive term of energy poverty and financial development has a significant positive impact on ecological footprint; thus, the financial sector adds to energy poverty and environmental degradation. The results of other variables hint that per capita income and institutions worsen environmental quality while urbanisation strengthens the environment.Originality/valueThis study offers fresh insights into the moderating effect of financial development in the link between energy poverty and sustainable environment in African countries.

Energy leapfrogging (i.e., skipping non-renewable grid infrastructures to micro-grid renewable sources) has been promoted by researchers and politicians as a solution in fighting against climate change and for access to electricity in less developed countries. Despite research on its potential, quantitative measurement of leapfrogging is still required to determine those nations who have utilized energy leapfrogging's promise. In this study, we present a quantitative analysis using World Bank Open Database data from 2000 to 2015, creating an aggregated leapfrogging estimate (ALE) through renewable energy consumption (i.e., percentage of total energy consumption) and access to electricity (i.e., percent of total population with access). We defined the ALE by subtracting (renewable consumption % in 2000 / access to electricity % in 2015) from (renewable consumption % in 2015 / access to electricity in 2000). We included only countries whose renewable energy consumption increased during the study interval. Low-income countries collectively leapfrogged more than other income groups. Somalia (48.11), Togo (3.05), Eswatini (2.76), and Timor-Leste (1.04) all had ALE values greater than 1 (range: 1.7 × 10 −5 –48.11). We then conducted a policy analysis of these countries, confirming that all four had implemented renewable energy policies to create access to electricity. Our ALE accurately determined countries with energy leapfrogging, uniquely incorporating access to electricity, consistent with the fundamental purpose of leapfrogging as a strategy to increase access. Future studies are needed to understand why low-income countries with low ALEs and access to electricity failed to leapfrog in the past. Future studies are also required to design prospective quantitative statistical models predicting the outcomes of leapfrogging strategies.

Access to quality education for all children is important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals especially in Africa. However, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and access to electricity have continued to be burning issues hindering access to quality education in Africa. However, empirical evidence on the impact of ICTs and access to electricity on primary education in Africa is rare. This paper, therefore, investigates the impacts of information and communication technologies and access to electricity on the education of children in Africa. The study used rich data on primary school enrolment, education expenditure, access to electricity, fixed broadband subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, mobile cellular subscriptions, and individuals using the internet in Africa obtained from the World Development Indicators. Leveraging on panel autoregressive distributed lag model, we find that fixed broadband subscriptions, mobile cellular subscriptions, individuals using the internet, and access to electricity exert significant impacts on school enrolment in Africa. We find from the Granger causality test result a unidirectional causality between school enrolment and mobile phone subscription. Furthermore, we identified bidirectional causalities between school enrolment and access to electricity, education expenditure, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed broadband subscriptions, and individuals using the internet. We conclude that information and communication technologies improve education in Africa.

Climate change remains a critical issue worldwide, and balancing economic growth with sustainable development is of paramount importance. Our study explores the complex relationship between globalization, environmental sustainability, and urbanization in selected developing countries. By utilizing a simple panel regression technique and data from 40 developing countries from 1994 to 2018, the study examines how these factors influence environmental stability. We find that with a strong focus on environmental sustainability, economic growth can be enhanced. Additionally, we find that globalization, along with GDP per capita and access to electricity, significantly impacts environmental sustainability. Conversely, the effect of urbanization on environmental stability appears to be minimal.

For centuries, humans have continued to deplete natural resources. The transportation sector is claimed to be the main culprit in wasting fossil energy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Fossil Fuels Electricity (FFE), Wind Electricity (WE), Solar Electricity (SE), Hydroelectricity (H), and Geothermal Electricity (GE) on Access to Electricity (AE) in Indonesia. The collection of data obtained from the Global Economy report, processed using time-series regression. Empirical testing clarifies that the increase in the variables of FFE, WE, SE, H, and GE, has increased AE in the short term. The more FFE, WE, SE, H, and GE increase 1 percent, the more AE increases in the long run. During 2013–2020, FFE as a variable that has a dominant effect on AE, where the nature of this energy is very limited, the frequency of its use is considered. Apart from the role of FFE which is crucial for basic human needs, it is necessary to restructure the rules that regulate, monitoring, and revitalize power generation systems based on natural gas, oil, and coal. 

Superior electricity-optimized business ecosystems (EOBEs) have evolved into pivotal determinants in catalyzing industrial–commercial prosperity. The access to electricity index (AEI) constitutes a valid instrument for assessing the EOBE. To realize the accurate evaluation of EOBE and the root cause tracing of its changes, this paper constructs a new analytical model for evaluating and monitoring changes in EOBE. First, this paper constructs a new evaluation model of EOBE based on the Business Ready (B-READY) evaluation system, considering three factors: the power regulatory quality, the public service level, and the enterprises’ gain power efficiency. Then, the model uses the raw data collected to calculate a score for AEI to enable an accurate assessment of EOBE. Next, this paper uses a priori assessment to extract the coupling features of indicators and combines the time series features and policy features to construct the feature matrix. Finally, the characteristic contribution was analyzed using support vector regression (SVR) and Shapley’s additive interpretation (SHAP) value. The experiment shows that the factors affecting the change in AEI are time series features, policy features, and coupling features in decreasing order of importance. This study provides reference cases and improvement ideas for the assessment and optimization of EOBE.

Previous studies have identified the importance of access to electricity and the socio-economic environment for poverty reduction, but the comprehensive interplay and synergistic relationships between them remain unclear. Using data collected from Myanmar, this study establishes and tests conceptual models to explore the paths from access to electricity and socio-economic environment to capability and income poverty reduction. The results of structural equation modeling show that capability poverty reduction acts as a complete mediator between access to electricity and income poverty reduction, and plays a partial mediating role between socio-economic environment and income poverty reduction. Analysis of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis demonstrates that lack of electricity is a key barrier impeding poverty alleviation efforts. Moreover, five effective configurations of poverty reduction factors are identified for Myanmar by considering the heterogeneity of different regions. This indicates that individual factors could not ensure a highly effective poverty reduction and different factors need to be appropriately configured for achieving the synergistic effects. These findings contribute to practical insights into poverty reduction policy making and sustainable development for developing countries.

Energy poverty remains a major challenge for sustainable and inclusive economic growth, good governance, peace and stability in developed countries and especially in developing regions such as Africa.In addition to this energy challenge, the participation of women in political decision-making remains another great challenge for African countries.To date, few studies have examined the effects of women’s political participation on energy poverty.Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of women’s political participation on energy poverty (measured mainly by access to electricity) in a panel of 45 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1997-2018.Additionally, this paper examines the transmission channels through which women’s political participation affects energy poverty.The empirical evidence is based on fixed-effects and the generalized method of moments (GMM), and the following results are established:First, women parliamentarians improve access to electricity for both the total population and urban and rural populations.In other words, results show that women parliamentarians reduce energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity checks.Second, we identify control of corruption and democracy as the main transmission channels through which women parliamentarians promote access to electricity.These results highlight the important role of women politicians in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including access to electricity in Africa. JEL Classification: J16; O55; P18; Q43