Does Electrification Matter for Child Development? Evidence from Ethiopia.
This paper examines the impacts of a large-scale grid-electrification program in rural Ethiopia on child development using high-quality panel data on nearly 1,200 children and their families. I document a slow and limited take-up of electricity at the household-level: even five years after villages'...
| Published in: | Journal of Development Studies Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 27 - 46 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jan2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=190283411&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 190283411 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00220388 JDS jtl: Journal of Development Studies issn: 00220388 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2026 vid: 62 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 190283411 10.1080/00220388.2025.2515884 ppf: 27 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 190283411 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 190283411 tig: atl: Does Electrification Matter for Child Development? Evidence from Ethiopia. aug: au: Proffen, Celina affil: Social Protection & Labor Global Practice, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA su: Ethiopia Child development Gender differences (Sociology) Electrification Educational benefits Rural electrification Ethiopians sug: subj: Child development Gender differences (Sociology) Ethiopia Electrification Educational benefits Rural electrification Ethiopians keyword: education gender time use education gender time use ab: This paper examines the impacts of a large-scale grid-electrification program in rural Ethiopia on child development using high-quality panel data on nearly 1,200 children and their families. I document a slow and limited take-up of electricity at the household-level: even five years after villages' connection to the grid, less than 50 per cent of village dwellings report having electricity access. Despite this finding, I observe important changes in children's daily routines, which point toward an important role of public infrastructure: upon electrification, children reduce their hours spent sleeping and helping their families by about 25 and 35 minutes, respectively. In addition, I document significant increases in the time that children spent on their education – both in and outside of school. Conditional on enrolment, these educational benefits are particularly pronounced for girls. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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