How does Renewable Energy affect life in Rural Communities? Evidence from a field experiment with Markov process in Honduras

13 Pages Posted: 26 Jun 2024

See all articles by Felipe Micangeli

Felipe Micangeli

Sapienza University of Rome

María del Pino Ramos-Sosa

Universidad Loyola Andalucía; University of Malaga - Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económics

Salvatore Vergine

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Giuseppe Attanasi

Sapienza University of Rome

Guglielmo D’Amico

'Gabriele d'Annunzio' University of Chieti-Pescara

Date Written: June 18, 2024

Abstract

This paper conducts a questionnaire-based field study to assess the perceived impact of rural electrification through renewable energy in Honduras. We collect data from 68 households from three rural communities in La Muralla National Park (Olancho, Honduras). Each community represents a different electrification context: El Díptamo is already electrified, El Empedrado is partially electrified and close to El Díptamo, and Las Manzanas is the more remote and less electrified community. The objective of the study is twofold: first, to understand the importance of electricity for each community in different social aspects, and second, to study the influence of electricity over time using Markov transition probability matrices. The results show that life in rural communities is highly positively affected by electricity, especially in households with longer access to electricity. More specifically, we find that perceptions of how access to electricity affects life characteristics such as health, education, work, safety, and household life do not differ across communities. Moreover, analysis of the transition probability matrices shows that the strongest differences are found in the transition from past to present. Such differences suggest the presence of spillover effects of energy access between electrified and non-electrified households over time. The matrices are instead similar in terms of probabilities between the present and the future; such similarities across communities in perceptions of future time trends may be driven by a sense of hope that access to electricity will reach all communities in the next years.

Keywords: Markov model, Energy Access, Impact Evaluation, Field Experiment

Suggested Citation

Micangeli, Felipe and Ramos-Sosa, María del Pino and Vergine, Salvatore and Attanasi, Giuseppe and D’Amico, Guglielmo, How does Renewable Energy affect life in Rural Communities? Evidence from a field experiment with Markov process in Honduras (June 18, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4869781 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4869781

Felipe Micangeli

Sapienza University of Rome ( email )

Piazzale Aldo Moro 5
Roma, Rome 00185
Italy

María del Pino Ramos-Sosa (Contact Author)

Universidad Loyola Andalucía ( email )

c/ Escritor Castilla Aguayo
Córdoba, 14004
Spain

University of Malaga - Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económics ( email )

Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales
Campus de El Ejido
Málaga, Málaga 29071
Spain

Salvatore Vergine

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Giuseppe Attanasi

Sapienza University of Rome ( email )

Faculty of Economics,
Rome

Guglielmo D’Amico

'Gabriele d'Annunzio' University of Chieti-Pescara ( email )

Viale Pindaro 42
Chieti Scalo, Pescara 66013
Italy

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
35
Abstract Views
207
PlumX Metrics