This study examines the effect of reliability of electricity on gender differences in socio-economic status using a comprehensive set of labor and non-labor market outcomes in India. Using the temporal variation in household electricity hours from a large gender-disaggregated data set, we examine the effects of electricity reliability with individual fixed effects and instrumental variable regressions. Our analysis reveals contrasting trends with significant progress at the extensive margin of electricity access, but little progress at the intensive margin of reliability, hours of electricity. We find that reliable electrification improves the status of women relative to men through increased employment opportunities and reduced time allocation to home production. For instance, 10 more hours of electricity increases the likelihood of employment in the ‘usual status’ by 2.8 percentage points (pp) for men, and 4.2 pp for women. The analysis is robust to the use of piece-wise linear regression approaches, as well as alternate specifications of the outcome variables. The study recommends considering electricity as a right, and as part of the broader strategy for reducing gender disparities in India.

这项研究使用印度一套全面的劳动力和非劳动力市场成果，研究了电力可靠性对社会经济状况中性别差异的影响。使用来自大量按性别分类的数据集的家庭用电时间的时间变化，我们通过单独的固定效应和工具变量回归研究了用电可靠性的影响。我们的分析揭示了截然不同的趋势，即在广泛的用电裕度方面取得了重大进展，而在可靠性和用电小时数方面则取得了显着进步。我们发现可靠的电气化可以通过增加就业机会和减少家庭生产的时间分配来改善女性相对于男性的地位。例如，超过10小时的通电时间，男性在普通状态下就职的可能性提高了2.8个百分点，女性在就业中增长了4.2个百分点。该分析对于使用分段线性回归方法以及结果变量的替代规范是可靠的。该研究建议将电力视为一项权利，并作为减少印度性别差异的更广泛战略的一部分。