IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-669262.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Welfare Impacts of Rural Electrification: A Panel Data Analysis from Vietnam

Author

Listed:
  • Shahidur R. Khandker
  • Douglas F. Barnes
  • Hussain A. Samad

Abstract

Most past studies on the development impact of rural electrification have relied on cross-sectional surveys comparing households with and without electricity. This study tests the validity of the perceived correlation between welfare outcomes and rural electrification and quantifies electricity's benefits on the basis of sound econometric techniques that control for endogeneity bias. The study used panel surveys conducted in rural Vietnam in 2002 and 2005, covering some 1,120 households in 41 communes; by 2005, all surveyed communes had connected to the grid, and four-fifths of their households had a connection. The econometric estimations suggest grid electrification's positive effects on both household income and expenditure and education. We find differential returns to electricity for commune- and household-level connection: the former generates externality benefiting the poor more than the rich, farm more than nonfarm income, and girls over boys for schooling outcome; conversely, the latter benefits the rich more than the poor, nonfarm more than farm income, and boys over girls for schooling outcome. We recommend further study on rural electrification's long-term benefits for the overall rural economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahidur R. Khandker & Douglas F. Barnes & Hussain A. Samad, 2013. "Welfare Impacts of Rural Electrification: A Panel Data Analysis from Vietnam," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(3), pages 659-692.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/669262
    DOI: 10.1086/669262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/669262
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/669262
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/669262?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti & Khan, Shakeeb & Timmins, Christopher, 2010. "The impact of piped water provision on infant mortality in Brazil: A quantile panel data approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 188-200, July.
    2. Duncan Thomas & Elizabeth Frankenberg & James P. Smith, 2001. "Lost but Not Forgotten: Attrition and Follow-up in the Indonesia Family Life Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(3), pages 556-592.
    3. Abrevaya, Jason & Dahl, Christian M, 2008. "The Effects of Birth Inputs on Birthweight," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 26, pages 379-397.
    4. Shahidur R. Khandker & Gayatri B. Koolwal & Hussain A. Samad, . "Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2693, September.
    5. Alderman, Harold & Behrman, Jere R. & Kohler, Hans-Peter & Maluccio, John A. & Cotts Watkins, Susan, 2000. "Attrition in longitudinal household survey data - some tests for three developing-country samples," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2447, The World Bank.
    6. James P. Ziliak & Thomas J. Kniesner, 1998. "The Importance of Sample Attrition in Life Cycle Labor Supply Estimation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(2), pages 507-530.
    7. Filmer, Deon & Pritchett, Lant, 1998. "The effect of household wealth on educational attainment : demographic and health survey evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1980, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. R. Khandker, Shahidur & Khalily, M. A. Baqui & A. Samad, Hussain, 2015. "Who Benefits Most from Microfinance in Bangladesh?," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 38(4), pages 1-30, December.
    2. Arulampalam, Wiji & Naylor, Robin A. & Smith, Jeremy, 2012. "Am I missing something? The effects of absence from class on student performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 363-375.
    3. Patricia Justino & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Poverty Dynamics, Violent Conflict, and Convergence in R wanda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(1), pages 66-90, March.
    4. Khandker, Shahidur R. & Samad, Hussain A., 2014. "Dynamic effects of microcredit in Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6821, The World Bank.
    5. Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti & Khan, Shakeeb & Timmins, Christopher, 2010. "The impact of piped water provision on infant mortality in Brazil: A quantile panel data approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 188-200, July.
    6. Paulo M.M. Rodrigues & Matei Demetrescu, 2022. "Cross-Sectional Error Dependence in Panel Quantile Regressions," Working Papers w202213, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    7. Barnes,Douglas French & Khandker,Shahidur R. & Nguyen,Minh Huu & Samad,Hussain A., 2009. "Welfare impacts of rural electrification : evidence from Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5057, The World Bank.
    8. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Jayne, Thomas S., 2012. "Do Fertilizer Subsidies Boost Staple Crop Production and Reduce Poverty Across the Distribution of Smallholders in Africa? Quantile Regression Results from Malawi," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126742, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Helke Waelde, 2011. "Demasking the impact of microfinance," Working Papers 1115, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 09 Nov 2011.
    10. Alan Sánchez & Javier Escobal, 2020. "Survey attrition after 15 years of tracking children in four developing countries: The Young Lives study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1196-1216, November.
    11. Boonperm, Jirawan & Haughton, Jonathan & Khandker, Shahidur R., 2013. "Does the Village Fund matter in Thailand? Evaluating the impact on incomes and spending," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 3-16.
    12. Samiul Haque, 2022. "US federal farm payments and farm size: Quantile estimation on panel data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 139-154, February.
    13. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    14. Alessandra Canepa & Fawaz Khaled, 2018. "Housing, Housing Finance and Credit Risk," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-23, May.
    15. Chen, Yuanyuan & Feng, Shuaizhang & Han, Yujie, 2020. "The effect of primary school type on the high school opportunities of migrant children in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 325-338.
    16. Samuel Sebsibie & Workineh Asmare & Tessema Endalkachew, 2015. "Agricultural Technology Adoption and Rural Poverty: a Study on Smallholders in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 23(2), December.
    17. Kato, Kengo & F. Galvao, Antonio & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel V., 2012. "Asymptotics for panel quantile regression models with individual effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(1), pages 76-91.
    18. Xiaoying Liu & Jere R. Behrman & Emily Hannum & Fan Wang & Qingguo Zhao, 2022. "Same environment, stratified impacts? Air pollution, extreme temperatures, and birth weight in south China," Papers 2204.00219, arXiv.org.
    19. Sarkar, Jayati & Selarka, Ekta, 2021. "Women on board and performance of family firms: Evidence from India," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    20. Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan & Winters, Paul, 2021. "What role can small-scale irrigation play in promoting inclusive rural transformation? Evidence from smallholder rice farmers in the Philippines," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).

    More about this item

    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:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/669262. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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.