IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4881.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is low coverage of modern infrastructure services in African cities due to lack of demand or lack of supply ?

Author

Listed:
  • Wodon, Quentin
  • Banerjee, Sudeshna
  • Diallo, Amadou Bassirou
  • Foster, Vivien

Abstract

A majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is not connected to electricity and piped water networks, and even in urban areas coverage is low. Lack of network coverage may be due to demand or supply-side factors. Some households may live in areas where access to piped water and electricity is feasible, but may not be able to pay for those services. Other households may be able to afford the services, but may live too far from the electric line or water pipe to have a choice to be connected to it. Given that the policy options for dealing with demand as opposed to supply-side issues are fairly different, it is important to try to measure the contributions of both types of factors in preventing better coverage of infrastructure services in the population. This paper shows how this can be done empirically using household survey data and provides results on the magnitude of both types of factors in explaining the coverage deficit of piped water and electricity services in urban areas for a large sample of African countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Wodon, Quentin & Banerjee, Sudeshna & Diallo, Amadou Bassirou & Foster, Vivien, 2009. "Is low coverage of modern infrastructure services in African cities due to lack of demand or lack of supply ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4881, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2009/03/27/000158349_20090327144908/Rendered/PDF/WPS4881.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fay, Marianne & Yepes, Tito, 2003. "Investing in infrastructure : what is needed from 2000 to 2010?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3102, The World Bank.
    2. Estache, Antonio, 2004. "Emerging infrastructure policy issues in developing countries - a survey of the recent economic literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3442, The World Bank.
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2007:i:4:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Antonio Estache & Quentin Wodon, 2014. "Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-34848-7, September.
    5. Kristin Komives & Vivien Foster & Jonathan Halpern & Quentin Wodon, 2005. "Water, Electricity, and the Poor : Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6361, December.
    6. Kayaga, Sam & Franceys, Richard, 2007. "Costs of urban utility water connections: Excessive burden to the poor," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 270-277, December.
    7. Komives, Kristin & Whittington, Dale & Wu, Xun, 2001. "Infrastructure coverage and the poor : the global perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2551, The World Bank.
    8. Sudeshna Banerjee & Amadou Bassirou Diallo & Quentin Wodon, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Access to Modern Infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa : Results from Demographic and Health Surveys," World Bank Publications - Reports 9553, The World Bank Group.
    9. Diego Angel-Urdinola & Quentin Wodon, 2007. "Do Utility Subsidies Reach the Poor? Framework and Evidence for Cape Verde, Sao Tome, and Rwanda," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 9(4), pages 1-7.
    10. Angel-Urdinola, Diego & Cosgrove-Davies, Malcolm & Wodon, Quentin, 2006. "Rwanda: Electricity Tariff Reform," MPRA Paper 9044, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Antonio Estache & V. Foster & Q. Wodon, 2002. "Accounting for Poverty in Infrastructure Reform: Learning from Latin America's Experience," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44108, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Infrastructure and Poverty: Part 2 – Are Household Needs Being Met?
      by Rotarian Economist in Rotarian Economist on 2014-11-16 17:00:12

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Tsimpo, Clarence & Wodon, Quentin, 2016. "Residential Electricity in Uganda," MPRA Paper 114702, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Blimpo, Moussa P. & Postepska, Agnieszka & Xu, Yanbin, 2020. "Why is household electricity uptake low in Sub-Saharan Africa?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 133(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. Banerjee, Sudeshna & Wodon, Quentin & Diallo, Amadou & Pushak, Taras & Uddin, Elal & Tsimpo, Clarence & Foster, Vivien, 2008. "Access, affordability, and alternatives: Modern infrastructure services in Africa," MPRA Paper 27740, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2008:i:20:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Banerjee, Sudeshna & Diallo, Amadou & Foster, Vivien & Wodon, Quentin, 2009. "Trends in household coverage of modern infrastructure services in Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4880, The World Bank.
    4. Tsimpo, Clarence & Wodon, Quentin, 2016. "Residential Electricity in Uganda," MPRA Paper 114702, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Elena Bardasi & Quentin Wodon, 2008. "Who pays the most for water? Alternative providers and service costs in Niger," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 9(20), pages 1-10.
    6. Barde, Julia Alexa & Lehmann, Paul, 2013. "Distributional effects of water tariff reforms: An empirical study for Lima, Peru," UFZ Discussion Papers 14/2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    7. He, Xiaoping & Reiner, David, 2016. "Electricity demand and basic needs: Empirical evidence from China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 212-221.
    8. Matthias Finger & Rolf W. Künneke (ed.), 2011. "International Handbook of Network Industries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12961.
    9. Fedderke, J.W. & Bogetic, Z., 2009. "Infrastructure and Growth in South Africa: Direct and Indirect Productivity Impacts of 19 Infrastructure Measures," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1522-1539, September.
    10. Blanca Moreno-Dodson & Quentin Wodon, 2008. "Public Finance for Poverty Reduction : Concepts and Case Studies from Africa and Latin America," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6881, December.
    11. Whittington, Dale & Nauges, Céline & Fuente, David & Wu, Xun, 2015. "A diagnostic tool for estimating the incidence of subsidies delivered by water utilities in low- and medium-income countries, with illustrative simulations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 70-81.
    12. Acey, Charisma & Kisiangani, Joyce & Ronoh, Patrick & Delaire, Caroline & Makena, Evelyn & Norman, Guy & Levine, David & Khush, Ranjiv & Peletz, Rachel, 2019. "Cross-subsidies for improved sanitation in low income settlements: Assessing the willingness to pay of water utility customers in Kenyan cities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 160-177.
    13. Angel-Urdinola, Diego & Wodon, Quentin, 2008. "Assessing the Targeting Performance of Social Programs: Cape Verde," MPRA Paper 11072, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Seethepalli, Kalpana & Bramati, Maria Caterina & Veredas, David, 2008. "How relevant is infrastructure to growth in East Asia ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4597, The World Bank.
    15. Marcela Meléndez & Andrés Gómez-Lobo Echeñique, 2007. "Social Policy, Regulation and Private Sector water supply: the case of Colombia," Working Papers wp252, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    16. Mahani Zainal Abidin, 2010. "Fiscal Policy Coordination in Asia : East Asian Infrastructure Investment Fund," Macroeconomics Working Papers 21870, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    17. Hung, Ming-Feng & Chie, Bin-Tzong, 2017. "The long-run performance of increasing-block pricing in Taiwan's residential electricity sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 782-793.
    18. Calderon, Cesar & Serven, Luis, 2008. "Infrastructure and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4712, The World Bank.
    19. Angel-Urdinola, Diego & Cosgrove-Davies, Malcolm & Wodon, Quentin, 2006. "Rwanda: Electricity Tariff Reform," MPRA Paper 9044, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Stephane Straub, 2008. "Infrastructure and Growth in Developing Countries: Recent Advances and Research Challenges," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 179, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    21. Antonio Estache & Liam Wren-Lewis, 2009. "Toward a Theory of Regulation for Developing Countries: Following Jean-Jacques Laffont's Lead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 729-770, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Currencies and Exchange Rates; Economic Theory&Research; Geographical Information Systems; Markets and Market Access;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:wbrwps:4881. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.