Oil dependency, political institutions, and urban-rural disparities in access to electricity in Africa

In line with the resource curse literature, this paper examines the effect of oil dependency on the disparities in access to electricity between urban and rural areas in Africa, conditional on the quality of political institutions. Based on data from 36 African countries over the period 2000-2017, our investigation suggests that oil rents (% of GDP) increase urban-rural disparities in access to electricity. However, the quality of institutions shapes the effect of oil dependency on these disparities. Specifically, a 10% increase in the institutional quality score reduces the adverse effects of oil rent on electricity access disparity by around 19%, and the negative impact of oil dependency on urban-rural disparities is reversed when institutional quality reaches a score of 52% on a scale from 0 to 100. The robustness tests support these results and call for strengthening the quality of institutions to overcome the resource curse in Africa.

Automated summary

This paper examines the impact of oil dependency on disparities in access to electricity between urban and rural areas in Africa, taking into account the quality of political institutions. The results show that oil rents (% of GDP) increase the urban-rural disparities in electricity access. However, the effect of oil dependency on these disparities is shaped by the quality of institutions. A higher institutional quality score reduces the adverse effects of oil rents on electricity access disparity, and the negative impact of oil dependency is reversed when institutional quality reaches a certain level. Robustness tests support these findings, highlighting the importance of strengthening institutional quality to overcome the resource curse in Africa.