Assessment of Access to Electricity and the Health, Education and Agricultural Productivity Effects in Rural Areas of Colombia

Abstract

In Colombia there have been some attempts to measure the impact generated by the energization projects from the technical-economic point of view. However, no studies have been made that address the quantification of the impact of these projects on the quality of life of the populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess qualitatively the bidirectional relationship between access to electricity and income, education, health and job productivity, and its effect in the quality of life of rural areas of Colombia. To deal with the endogeneity of the above variables an econometric model of simultaneous equations was proposed by means of the three-stage least squares method. The data for the test were obtained from the Colombian National Agriculture Census, which were conducted by the National Administrative Department of Statistics. The results showed that access to electricity has positive impacts on quality of life of rural areas. It was observed a significant and positive effect of the electrification on income, education and agricultural productivity, but negative on health. Finally, the highly significant magnitude of the impact of the access to electricity on the quality of life of the population is an important and powerful argument for including energy policies in national development plans.