Determinants of households’ choice of energy for lighting in Nepal

Authors

  • Maheshwar Giri National College, Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Binoy Goswami Faculty of Economics, South Asian University, New Delhi, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.6.2.2017.42-47

Abstract

The paper identifies the determinants of energy choice for lighting in Nepal by applying a multinomial logit regression to a nationally representative set of household level data.  It has been found that the richer households use better quality source of energy, confirming the energy ladder hypothesis. The other significant determinants of energy choice for lighting in Nepal are: gender and education level of the heads of households, family size and proportion of dependent population in families, distance from the market and location of households. The paper suggests the utilisation of the potential of micro hydropower plants for supplying clean energy in the remote areas of Nepal.  

Author Biography

Binoy Goswami, Faculty of Economics, South Asian University, New Delhi, India

Assistant professor, Faculty of Economics

 

References

Adeyemi, P.A. and Adereleye, A. (2016) Determinants of household choice of cooking ener-gy in Ondo state, Nigeria, Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 7(9), 131-142.

Bhandari, R. and Stadler, I. (2011) Electrification using solar photovoltaic system in Nepal, Applied Energy, 88(2), 458–465.

Bhattacharyya, S.C. (2006) Energy access problem of the poor in India: is rural electrification a remedy?, Energy Policy, 34(18), 3387–3397.

Hosier, R.H. and Dowd, J. (1987) Household fuel choice in Zimbabwe: an empirical test of the energy ladder hypothesis, Resource and Energy, 9(4), 347-361.

Heltberg, R. (2004) Fuel switching: evidence from eight developing countries, Energy Eco-nomics, 26(5), 869-887.

Heltberg, R. (2005) Factors determining household fuel choice in Guatemala, Environment & Development Economics, 10(3), 337-361.

Jumbe, C.B.L. and Angelsen, A. (2011) Modeling choice of fuelwood source among rural households in Malawi: a multinomial probit analysis, Energy Economics, 33, 732-738.

KC. Surendra, Khanal, S. K., Shrestha, P. and Lamsal, B. P. (2011) Current status of renewa-ble energy in Nepal: opportunities and challenges, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15(8), 4107–4117.

Koswari, R. and Zerriffi, H. (2011) Three-dimensional energy profile: a conceptual framework for assessing household energy use, Energy Policy, 39(12), 7505-7517.

Lay, J., Ondraczek, J. and Stoever, J. (2013) Renewables in the energy transition: evidence on solar home systems and lighting fuel choice in Kenya, Energy Economics, 40, 350-359.

Leach, G. (1992) The energy transition, Energy Policy, 20(2), 116-123.

Masera, O.R., Saatkamp, B. D. and Kammen, D.M. (2000) From linear fuel switching to mul-tiple cooking strategies: a critique and alternative to the energy ladder model, World Development, 28(12), 2083-2103.

Nepal Micro Hydropower Development Association (2017) Hydropower in Nepal, available at http://microhydro.org.np/mh-in-nepal/, accessed on 09.04.2017.

Nlon, J.H. and Karimov, A.A. (2015) Modeling fuel choice among households in Northern Cameroon, Sustainability, 7, 9989-9999.

Nnaji, C.E., Ukweze, E. R. and. Chukwu, J.O (2012) Determinants of household energy choices for cooking in rural areas: evidence from Enugu state, Nigeria, Continental Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 1-11.

Rahut, D.B., Das, S., Groote, H.D. and Behera, B. (2014) Determinants of household energy use in Bhutan, Energy, 69, 661-672.

Rao, M.N. and Reddy, B.S. (2007) Variations in energy use by Indian households: an analysis of micro-level data, Energy, 32(2), 143-153.

Reddy, B.S. (1995) A multilogit model for fuel shifts in the domestic sector, Energy, 20, 929-36.

Downloads

Published

07-06-2017

How to Cite

Giri, M., & Goswami, B. (2017). Determinants of households’ choice of energy for lighting in Nepal. Economics and Business Letters, 6(2), 42–47. https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.6.2.2017.42-47

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2017): June

Section

Articles

License

The works published in this journal are subject to the following terms:

1. Oviedo University Press (the publisher) retains the property rights (copyright) of published works, and encourages and enables the reuse of the same under the license specified in paragraph 2.

© Ediuno. Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo / Oviedo University Press

2. The works are published in the online edition of the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derives 3.0 Spain (legal text). You can copy, use, distribute, transmit and publicly display, provided that: i) you cite the author and the original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work), ii) they are not used for commercial purposes, iii) mentions the existence and specifications of this license.

3. Conditions of self-archiving. The author can archive the post-print version of the article (publisher’s version) on the author’s personal website and/or on the web of  the institution where he belong, including a link to the page of the journal and putting the way of citation of the work. Economics and Business Letters and its URL https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/EBL/index are the only authorized source for correctly giving the reference of the publisher’s version in every mention of the article.