A ladder within a ladder: Understanding the factors influencing a household's domestic use of electricity in four African countries

- Electricity for light and light and cooking is a massive transition.
- Small fraction of population uses electricity only for light.
- Tiny fraction of population uses electricity for both light and cooking.
- Poor and less educated households do not use electricity.
- Rich, educated and urban household uses electricity for both light and cooking.

According to the energy ladder hypothesis, electricity is at the top of the energy ladder of household energy use that depends primarily on wealth status, income and education levels of the users. However, it is often observed that households with higher income, wealth, and education levels do not use electricity for all domestic activities such as lighting, heating, and cooking, creating a ladder within a ladder. Using a comprehensive data set from the Living Standard Measurement Study from four African countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda), covering > 17,000 households, this paper investigates the factors determining a household's adoption of electricity for lighting only and for lighting and cooking. The results of a multinomial logit model and an ordered probit model show that demographic characteristics, a household's wealth and human capital, access to markets and remoteness greatly accelerate a household's use of electricity for light and cooking, which provides evidence of a ladder within a ladder.