Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. Adjusting policies to contain trans- mission while mitigating the economic impact requires an assessment of the economic situation in near real-time and at high spatial granularity. Th...

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Main Authors:	Beyer, Robert C.M., Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian, Galdo, Virgilio
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION NIGHTLIGHT MEASUREMENT NIGHTTIME LIGHT INTENSITY ENERGY CONSUMPTION MIGRATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/763351592916493022/Examining-the-Economic-Impact-of-COVID-19-in-India-through-Daily-Electricity-Consumption-and-Nighttime-Light-Intensity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33986

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-339862022-09-20T00:11:08Z Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity Beyer, Robert C.M. Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian Galdo, Virgilio CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION NIGHTLIGHT MEASUREMENT NIGHTTIME LIGHT INTENSITY ENERGY CONSUMPTION MIGRATION The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. Adjusting policies to contain trans- mission while mitigating the economic impact requires an assessment of the economic situation in near real-time and at high spatial granularity. This paper shows that daily electricity consumption and monthly nighttime light intensity can proxy for economic activity in India. Energy consumption is compared with the predictions of a consumption model that explains 90 percent of the variation in normal times. Energy consumption declined strongly after a national lockdown was implemented on March 25, 2020 and remained a quarter below normal levels throughout April. It recovered somewhat subsequently, but electricity consumption was on average still 13.5 percent lower than normal in May. Not all states and union territories have been affected equally. While electricity consumption halved in some, others were not affected at all. Part of the heterogeneity is explained by the prevalence of manufacturing and return migration. At the district level, higher COVID-19 infection rates were associated with larger declines in nighttime light intensity in April. Together, daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity allow monitoring economic activity in near real-time and high spatial granularity. 2020-06-25T14:59:44Z 2020-06-25T14:59:44Z 2020-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/763351592916493022/Examining-the-Economic-Impact-of-COVID-19-in-India-through-Daily-Electricity-Consumption-and-Nighttime-Light-Intensity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33986 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9291 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 South Asia India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION NIGHTLIGHT MEASUREMENT NIGHTTIME LIGHT INTENSITY ENERGY CONSUMPTION MIGRATION
spellingShingle	CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LOCKDOWN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION NIGHTLIGHT MEASUREMENT NIGHTTIME LIGHT INTENSITY ENERGY CONSUMPTION MIGRATION Beyer, Robert C.M. Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian Galdo, Virgilio Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
geographic_facet	South Asia India
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9291
description	The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. Adjusting policies to contain trans- mission while mitigating the economic impact requires an assessment of the economic situation in near real-time and at high spatial granularity. This paper shows that daily electricity consumption and monthly nighttime light intensity can proxy for economic activity in India. Energy consumption is compared with the predictions of a consumption model that explains 90 percent of the variation in normal times. Energy consumption declined strongly after a national lockdown was implemented on March 25, 2020 and remained a quarter below normal levels throughout April. It recovered somewhat subsequently, but electricity consumption was on average still 13.5 percent lower than normal in May. Not all states and union territories have been affected equally. While electricity consumption halved in some, others were not affected at all. Part of the heterogeneity is explained by the prevalence of manufacturing and return migration. At the district level, higher COVID-19 infection rates were associated with larger declines in nighttime light intensity in April. Together, daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity allow monitoring economic activity in near real-time and high spatial granularity.
format	Working Paper
author	Beyer, Robert C.M. Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian Galdo, Virgilio
author_facet	Beyer, Robert C.M. Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian Galdo, Virgilio
author_sort	Beyer, Robert C.M.
title	Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
title_short	Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
title_full	Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
title_fullStr	Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
title_full_unstemmed	Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
title_sort	examining the economic impact of covid-19 in india through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/763351592916493022/Examining-the-Economic-Impact-of-COVID-19-in-India-through-Daily-Electricity-Consumption-and-Nighttime-Light-Intensity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33986
_version_	1764479941407145984

Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity

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