Effectiveness of policy regarding power supply to schools through solar energy: Using solar panels to increase enrolment at schools in Pakistan
Abstract Background: Climate change has adversarial impact on social and economic development, with negative consequences on living conditions, health outcomes and labour productivity. Although there is ample literature that highlights the use of renewable energy, especially solar energy, in mitigating the effects of climate change, empirical evidence linking benefits of renewable energy with educational access and attainment is very limited. Results: By using school level data between 2013-18 from Pakistan, this paper estimates the effectiveness of the policy regarding power supply to schools through solar energy on enrolment. Using a difference-in-difference estimation and controlling for school-specific and infrastructure-specific characteristics, we show that average enrolment per school in Punjab increased by 48.5 students, compared to average enrolment per school elsewhere in Pakistan, after the policy of installing solar panels at schools in Punjab was announced. Furthermore, gender-wise breakup of results suggest that the policy resulted in increased enrolment for boys’ schools, girls’ school and mixed-gender schools. The results are consistent when standard errors are normal, robust, or clustered at the province level. Policy implications: Limitation of the study includes unidentified mechanisms for the policy effect and heterogeneous effects on gender, which should be the focus of future research.