电力的力量: 小水电与女孩教育
The power of electricity: Small hydropower and girls’ education
Journal of Development Economics · 2026 · [{"name": "Yichen Luo", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Chuanhao Tian", "affiliation": []}]
中文摘要
本文研究农村电气化对中国农村女孩受教育及其后续生命历程结果的影响。我们利用"小水电农村电气化"(Rural Electrification through Small Hydropower, SHP-RE)项目, 该项目于20世纪80年代和90年代分三批在各县推广。基于县—队列数据并采用双重差分设计, 我们估计了15岁前接触电气化的影响。SHP-RE使女孩高中阶段入学率提高了5.1个百分点, 而男孩没有可比的提升。这一影响集中于在童年后期和青春期早期接触该项目的队列。接触电气化还推迟了女性的初婚年龄, 并降低了其在20岁前结婚的概率。机制证据最符合以下解释: 女孩的家务劳动负担减轻, 以及家庭对节省劳动力技术的采用增加。较早实现电气化的县, 后来也表现出高中及以上受教育程度女性占比更高、企业注册密度更大。总体而言, 结果表明, 农村电气化在关键的人力资本与生命历程边际上, 为女孩和女性带来了巨大且持久的收益。
Abstract
This paper studies the effects of rural electrification on girls' schooling and later life-course outcomes in rural China. We draw on the Rural Electrification through Small Hydropower (SHP-RE), which was rolled out across counties in three waves during the 1980s and 1990s. Using county-cohort data and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate the effects of exposure to electrification by age 15. SHP-RE increased girls' upper-secondary enrollment by 5.1 percentage points, with no comparable gains for boys. The effects are concentrated among cohorts exposed during later childhood and early adolescence. Exposure also delayed women's age at first marriage and reduced the probability of marrying before age 20. Mechanism evidence is most consistent with reduced domestic labor burden for girls and greater adoption of labor-saving household technology. Counties electrified earlier also later exhibited higher shares of women with upper-secondary education or above and greater enterprise-registration density. Overall, the results show that rural electrification generated large and persistent gains for girls and women at key human-capital and life-course margins.