dc.description.abstract | Electricity access is an important issue and building capacity for it requires drawing relevant lessons from past
policies. In this study, we evaluate the effect of the Jyotigram Yojana, or the lighted village scheme, a supply-side
policy intervention during 2003–08 to increase rural electricity access in Gujarat, India. We hypothesize that
policy implementation is associated with increased electricity consumption. To test this hypothesis, we exploit
variation in the timing of policy implementation at the village level, and use a generalized difference-indifferences strategy for identification. Further, we use night-time luminosity measured through remote sensing
as a proxy for electricity consumption, and control for weather, village fixed effect, year fixed effect, and village
or administrative block specific time trend. We find that while the overall effect of the policy on night-time
luminosity was not statistically significant, the effects were likely heterogeneous, with the night-time luminosity increasing in some districts after policy implementation and decreasing in others. We conclude that the policy
might have had a re-distributive effect on electricity access or consumption and recommend adopting a more
holistic approach – incorporating both supply-side and demand-side measures – to increase electricity access. | en_US |