Social Interaction Effects and Connection to Electricity

Experimental Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

Bibliographic Data

ID4360305
AuthorsTanguy Bernard (0000-0003-2554-0217, Université de Bordeaux), Máximo Torero (0000-0002-4863-3371)
Year2015
Volume63
Issue3
Pages459-484
Publication date2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Development and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0079 • E-ISSN: 1539-2988
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/679746
OpenAlexW2099306918
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited24

This article assesses the importance of social interactions in determining an individual’s choice to connect to an electrical grid, using an original data set on a new rural electrification program in Ethiopia. Combining global positioning system information with random allocation of discount vouchers for connection to the grid, we show that neighbors’ connection behaviors have large effects on a household’s connection decision. This effect is also shown to decrease by distance: no peer effect is found for neighbors living farther than 100 meters away. Evidence also suggests that expectation interactions (through social learning of the benefits of electricity) or constraint interactions (through direct externalities of one’s connection on others’ well-being) are unlikely to fully account for these effects and that preference interactions (through a “keeping up with neighbors” type of mechanism) appear to be a plausible explanation. We discuss implications for further research and the design of development interventions

Connection (principal bundle) · Economics · Electricity · Externality · Geography · Grid · Grid connection · Microeconomics · Preference · Psychological intervention · Public economics · Computer Science · Energy and Environment Impacts · Engineering · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access