Research Activities

Research Projects

FY 2015/2016 Research Topic: C-23
Impact of Rural Electrification on Fertility in Bangladesh

Outline

Using secondary household surveys and other community-level data sets, we investigate the impact of the rural electrification program on fertility in Bangladesh. While there have been a few studies on the relationship between rural electrification and fertility, previous studies suffer from a number of problems, including potential endogeneity of the adoption of electricity. This problem is important because those households that adopt electricity may be systematically different from others. We also try to disentangle the effects of electrification at the household level and access to electricity at the village or district level. This, in turn, will help us identify the channels through which rural electrification affects fertility behavior. This study is also likely to bear some implications relevant to the formulation of policies for rural electrification and family planning and also might shed light on other indirect impacts of electrification on rural households.

Period

April 2014 - March 2016

Members of the Research Project
[ Organizer ] SHONCHOY Abu
[ Co-researchers ] FUJII Tomoki (Associate Professor, School of Economics, Singapore Management University)
[ Co-researchers ] XU Sijia (School of Economics, Singapore Management University)
Publications