Energy

Energy is essential for economic growth and the basis of modern lifestyles, yet more than a billion people worldwide live without access to electricity.

More from the Series

Blog Post
Chart of the Week #6: Gas Is Too Damn Cheap
Justin Sandefur
February 10, 2018
Fuel subsidies are bad for the planet, expensive, and often regressive. With new, high-frequency price data researchers explore why they’re also so hard to kill.
Blog Post
When Nigeria’s Population Surpasses America’s, Will Power Capacity Keep Up?
Todd Moss
and
Gailyn Portelance
January 17, 2018
Sometime around 2045, Nigeria’s population will pass the United States in size. Nigeria isalready the world’s most under-powered country in the world relative to its income—nearly 80 percent below global trends. As large as the power gap is today, what will Nigeria’...
Blog Post
Holiday Lights Are for Celebration—and for Shining Light on Energy Inequality
Todd Moss
and
Gailyn Portelance
December 18, 2017
Every year, millions of Americans power up decorative lights to celebrate the holidays. These festive lights invoke the best human aspirations of peace, joy, and generosity. This time of year, Americans should also celebrate that we can enjoy these traditions because we live in a country with a mode...
POLICY PAPERS
When Do Subsidy Reforms Stick? Lessons from Iran, Nigeria, and India
Priscilla Atansah et al.
November 17, 2017
This paper covers qualitative case studies from Iran, Nigeria, and India to illustrate a series of lessons for governments implementing subsidy reform policies. From these three country experiences, we find that fostering public support to implement lasting reform may depend on four measures: (1) fo...
Blog Post
The World Bank Now Has Three Poverty Lines. Why Not Three for Energy?
Todd Moss
and
Gailyn Portelance
November 09, 2017
The World Bank now has three benchmarks for measuring poverty. The “headline” extreme poverty threshold of $1.90/day will stay, but two new international poverty lines were added for lower middle-income ($3.20/day) and upper middle-income ($5.50/day) countries. While it’s grea...
TESTIMONY
Energy in Africa Promotes US Economic and Security Interests
Todd Moss
November 01, 2017
Todd Moss testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy at a hearing titled “Energy and International Development” on November 1, 2017...
POLICY PAPERS
The Electricity Situation in Ghana: Challenges and Opportunities
Ebenezer Nyarko Kumi
August 29, 2017
In the past decade, Ghana has experienced severe electricity supply challenges even though installed generation capacity has more than doubled over the period. The electricity supply challenges can be attributed to a number of factors, including a high level of losses in the distribution system as w...