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Demand for Electricity on the Global Electrification Frontier
(with Robin Burgess, Michael Greenstone and Nicholas Ryan) |
Energy Research
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Falling off-grid solar prices and subsidized grid extension are revolutionizing choice for the billion people without electricity. We use experimental price variation to estimate demand over all electricity sources in Bihar, India, during a four-year period when electrification rates leapt from 27% to 64%. We find that household surplus from electrification tripled, with gains due nearly as much to off-grid solar as to the subsidized grid. Choice matters—the surplus from electrification is 3-5× greater than from any one source. Nonetheless, we project future electrification will come mainly from the grid, since households prefer the grid as they grow wealthier.
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New Working Paper: Demand for Electricity on the Global Electrification Frontier