Does energy poverty hinder human capital development? Empirical evidence from Burkina Faso

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Résumé

The objective of this article is to examine the effect of multidimensional energy poverty on human capital development in Burkina Faso. To this end, we adopt the approach developed by Nussbaumer et al. (2012) to measure multidimensional energy poverty and employ an instrumental variables method to address endogeneity issues inherent in the relationship between energy poverty and human capital. The analysis is based on two waves of the Harmonised Survey on Household Living Conditions conducted in 2018 and 2021. The results indicate an increase in the level of multidimensional energy poverty in Burkina Faso between 2018 and 2021 and reveal significant disparities by gender and household place of residence. Furthermore, the findings show that multidimensional energy poverty has a negative impact on children's health and education outcomes. These results suggest that integrating multidimensional energy poverty concerns into development policies could contribute to strengthening human capital in Burkina Faso.

Mots-clés

Multidimensional energy poverty, Health, Education, Instrumental variables method