Electric cooking in the energy transition: How much subsidization is needed?

In this project we propose to estimate demand for an electric pressure cooker (EPC), a highly-efficient electric cooking appliance well-suited to many African cuisines, among grid connected households in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Electric cooking adoption is being increasingly promoted as a solution to energy poverty, given increasing electricity access rates and installed, renewable generation capacity. Programs to promote electric cooking recognize the need for subsidies and other demand stimulating policies. Our project will inform these policies by estimating current willingness to pay (WTP) for EPCs among grid connected households in urban & peri-urban areas using a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism and estimating the effect of an operating cost information treatment on WTP. We also hope to inform the methodological literature by evaluating a recent innovation in BDM design. We hypothesize that WTP for EPCs is below market prices, but that offering information to correct misperceptions about the cost of electric cooking will increase demand.