A Hard Bargain? A cost-benefit analysis of an improved cookstove program in India
Abstract
In developing countries, access to modern energy for cooking and heating still remains
a challenge to raising households out of poverty. About 2.5 billion people depend
on solid fuels such as biomass, wood, charcoal and animal dung. The use of solid fuels
has negative outcomes for health, the environment and economic development (Universal
Energy Access, UNDP). In low income countries, 1.3 million deaths occur due to indoor
smoke or air pollution from burning solid fuels in small, confined and unventilated
kitchens or homes. In addition, pollutants such as black carbon, methane and ozone,
emitted when burning inefficient fuels, are responsible for a fraction of the climate
change and air pollution. There are international efforts to promote the use of clean
cookstoves in developing countries but limited evidence on the economic benefits of
such distribution programs.
This study undertook a systematic economic evaluation of a program that distributed
subsidized improved cookstoves to rural households in India. The evaluation examined
the effect of different levels of subsidies on the net benefits to the household and
to society. This paper answers the question, “Ex post, what are the economic benefits
to various stakeholders of a program that distributed subsidized improved cookstoves?”
In addressing this question, the evaluation used empirical data from India applied
to a cost-benefit model to examine how subsidies affect the costs and the benefits
of the biomass improved cookstove and the electric improved cookstove to different
stakeholders.
Type
Master's projectDepartment
The Sanford School of Public PolicySubject
Climate changeImproved cookstoves
Environmental health
Cost-benefit analysis
Monte Carlo simulations
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12495Citation
Pinto, Alisha (2016). A Hard Bargain? A cost-benefit analysis of an improved cookstove program in India.
Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12495.More Info
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