Energy, Inequality and pro-poor growth in South Africa

With the threat of depletion of finite resources and most trivial energy sources in particular, the necessity to understand the impact of energy on the socio-economic fundamentals has never been so pressing. This threat is compounded by the close relationship between energy and the environment. This book explores the intricate theoretical and empirical role that energy can and does play in the growth-inequality-poverty nexus. It also looks at other factors that may make suitable energy resources more effective. An important aspect of the work is that it disaggregates energy into its various sources and comparatively uses multi-framework approach in order to appreciate both the effects of quantity of energy and the energy mix. Different energy types are shown to have different effects on output, inequality and poverty. In South Africa, efforts to reduce between-group inequality can also be associated with less consumption of energy. Access to energy types like electricity, diesel and gas are crucial for economic growth, but for them to yield significant anti-poverty impacts, policy efforts must go beyond energy to (both physical and human) capital development.