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Exploring the Impact of Energy Sources on Production, Inequality and Poverty in Simultaneous Equations Models for South Africa
Author(s) -
Ngepah Nicholas
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8268.2011.00290.x
Subject(s) - economics , energy poverty , per capita , poverty , inequality , productivity , economic inequality , natural resource economics , production (economics) , development economics , agricultural economics , economic growth , macroeconomics , mathematics , population , medicine , mathematical analysis , alternative medicine , demography , pathology , sociology , panacea (medicine)
: This work adapts per capita income, energy demand (sub‐group decomposed), inequality and poverty frameworks in a simultaneous equations setting to investigate the role of energy sources on per capita income, inequality and poverty in South Africa. It finds that energy sources (particularly electricity and diesel) are important in estimating production functions. Gasoline, kerosene and coal all exacerbate poverty, with the highest impacts on abject poverty. It is better to disaggregate energy sources in order to capture resource‐specific details. Redistribution efforts that focus on reduction of between‐group inequality can also moderate energy use since between‐group inequality tends to increase the demand for most energy sources. Public efforts are yielding fruits in this direction and should be encouraged. Access to energy sources like electricity, diesel and gas are crucial for productivity enhancement, but for them to yield significant anti‐poverty fruits, efforts must also target broadening capital access by the poor.