Abstract
This pre-analysis plan details a randomized controlled trial in rural Burundi designed to evaluate the adoption and impact of electric cooking (e-cooking) appliances among newly electrified households. Currently, over 90% of households in the study setting rely on biomass fuels like charcoal and firewood, which contributes to deforestation, increases local air pollution, and limits rural electricity demand. The study aims to identify which appliances and subsidy combinations maximize electricity demand, assess the environmental and economic benefits, and determine if carbon markets can cover appliance costs. The experimental design cross-randomizes the provision of e-cooking technologies—pressure cookers, induction stoves, hot plates, or a combination—and subsidy levels (free versus installment plans) across 66 newly electrified settlements, known as collines, encompassing a treated sample of 5,000 households. Using an ANCOVA empirical specification to estimate intent-to-treat effects, the analysis will evaluate primary outcomes including stove ownership, administrative electricity consumption, physical biomass consumption, and appliance-specific electricity usage. Additionally, the study will track secondary outcomes such as total energy expenditures, time spent cooking and collecting fuel, and overall household welfare, while testing for heterogeneous effects based on baseline household size, wealth, and cooking fuel.