Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms

Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms

Entrepreneurs in developing countries report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts impact the micro firms that account for the majority of employment. This paper estimates the effects...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hardy, Morgan, McCasland, Jamie
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
BLACKOUT
ELECTRICITY ACCESS
MICROENTERPRISES
INFRASTRUCTURE
FIRM SIZE
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/652241576769009597/Lights-Off-Lights-On-The-Effects-of-Electricity-Shortages-on-Small-Firms
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33101
id okr-10986-33101
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-331012022-09-20T00:14:13Z Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms Hardy, Morgan McCasland, Jamie BLACKOUT ELECTRICITY ACCESS MICROENTERPRISES INFRASTRUCTURE FIRM SIZE Entrepreneurs in developing countries report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts impact the micro firms that account for the majority of employment. This paper estimates the effects of outages on small firms using original firm-level panel data and finds evidence of differential effects by firm size. Firms without employees experience large reductions in revenues and profits. Outages have no measurable effect on the output of firms with employees, where worker hours increase, weekly wages paid decrease, and the analysis fails to reject that blackouts have no effect on (average firm-level) worker hourly wages. 2019-12-27T16:11:37Z 2019-12-27T16:11:37Z 2019-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/652241576769009597/Lights-Off-Lights-On-The-Effects-of-Electricity-Shortages-on-Small-Firms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33101 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9093 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic BLACKOUT
ELECTRICITY ACCESS
MICROENTERPRISES
INFRASTRUCTURE
FIRM SIZE
spellingShingle BLACKOUT
ELECTRICITY ACCESS
MICROENTERPRISES
INFRASTRUCTURE
FIRM SIZE
Hardy, Morgan
McCasland, Jamie
Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9093
description Entrepreneurs in developing countries report that unreliable electricity imposes a serious constraint, yet little evidence exists on how blackouts impact the micro firms that account for the majority of employment. This paper estimates the effects of outages on small firms using original firm-level panel data and finds evidence of differential effects by firm size. Firms without employees experience large reductions in revenues and profits. Outages have no measurable effect on the output of firms with employees, where worker hours increase, weekly wages paid decrease, and the analysis fails to reject that blackouts have no effect on (average firm-level) worker hourly wages.
format Working Paper
author Hardy, Morgan
McCasland, Jamie
author_facet Hardy, Morgan
McCasland, Jamie
author_sort Hardy, Morgan
title Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
title_short Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
title_full Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
title_fullStr Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
title_full_unstemmed Lights Off, Lights On : The Effects of Electricity Shortages on Small Firms
title_sort lights off, lights on : the effects of electricity shortages on small firms
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/652241576769009597/Lights-Off-Lights-On-The-Effects-of-Electricity-Shortages-on-Small-Firms
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33101
_version_ 1764478003115458560

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