Fracking, farmers, and rural electrification in India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fetter, T. Robert; Usmani, Faraz
• 署名单位: Duke University; Mathematica
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103308
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: rural electrification; EMPLOYMENT; natural experiment; INDIA

摘要

The shale gas revolution in the United States induced an unprecedented commodity boom across northwestern India. Leveraging population -based discontinuities in the contemporaneous roll -out of India's national rural electrification scheme, we show that access to electricity increased total employment and non-agricultural employment in villages affected by this exogenous economic shock, but had no impact on labor markets elsewhere. This combination of two natural experiments highlights how complementary economic conditions drive heterogeneity in the labor -market impacts of rural electrification. It also helps explain the large variation in the reported impacts of such resource -intensive infrastructure investments globally.