The Effects of Electrification in Rural Peru

The graph is from this paper by Rosamaría Dasso & Fernando Fernandez. The abstract

We examine the effects of a rural electrification program on employment in Peru. Exploiting the roll-out of the program across districts over time, we adopt differences-in-differences and fixed- effects strategies to estimate the impact of the program on la- bor market outcomes. The results from our preferred specifica- tion suggest that, among males, providing electrification increases hours of work and diminishes the likelihood of having a second oc- cupation. Among females, the treatment rises earnings and these gains seem to be driven by a shift towards non-agricultural jobs. Then, we construct a measure of treatment intensity and show that each additional electrification project increases the magni- tude of the estimated impacts (in absolute terms).

HT: Jacob A. Jordaan