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Field
Trial Title
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Before
How to foster adoption of electricity and income generation in recently electrified areas. A cluster-randomized trial in rural Rwanda
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After
Foster adoption and productive use of electricity – A cluster randomized policy roll-out in rural Rwanda
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Field
Abstract
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Before
Despite a significant rollout of the electric grid, electricity usage among household and micro-enterprises in rural Rwanda remains low. This project seeks to answer if the benefits of on-grid electrification can be maximized by the availability of complementary inputs. Specifically, we study how tailored and bundled Business Development Services including on-time grants for micro-enterprises and cooperatives can stimulate appliance investments, electricity usage intensity, and business performance. We partner with the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure to randomly assign the Business Development Services on the village level. The project will inform policy makers on how to increase the effectiveness of electrification interventions in Rwanda and in other countries.
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After
Despite a significant rollout of the electric grid, electricity usage among household and micro-enterprises in rural Rwanda remains low. This project seeks to answer if the benefits of on-grid electrification can be maximized by the availability of complementary inputs. Specifically, we study how one-time grants for micro-enterprises can stimulate appliance investments, electricity consumption, and business creation and performance. We partner with the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure to randomly assign the Business Development Services on the village level. We will look at the direct impact on grant applicants and communities by comparing outcomes between communities with and without access to grants after approximately one year. We will also assess spillovers on non-beneficiary households and microenterprises.
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Trial Start Date
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Before
November 01, 2020
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After
May 27, 2022
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Last Published
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Before
October 04, 2021 02:56 PM
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After
June 08, 2022 11:34 AM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
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After
To tackle liquidity constraints and encourage electricity consumption, the Rwandan government is piloting the Scaling-Up Energy Access Project (SEAP), which supports connected communities to use electricity for productive economic activities by, among other, providing tailored one-time in-kind grants to connected households and microenterprises.
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Intervention Start Date
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Before
October 01, 2021
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After
July 04, 2022
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Intervention End Date
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Before
October 01, 2022
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After
August 31, 2023
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Appliance investments, electricity consumption, business performance and income
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After
Appliance ownership (intermediary), electricity consumption, firm profitability and business creation in community
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
We conduct a randomized controlled trial where we test whether access to tailored and bundled Business Development Services improves appliance investments, electricity usage intensity, and business performance. The randomization of the treatment allows us to causally identify the impact on our primary and secondary outcomes.
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After
The research design relies on a clustered randomized controlled trial with treatment assignment at the community level.
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Field
Planned Number of Observations
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Before
1275 respondents
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After
425 applicants
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
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After
Mechanisms: Business creation, business operation time, customers, competition, production
Secondary outcomes: household welfare, employment
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