International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—The study aims at testing the proposition that how outreach of financial institutions as well as the access to information about alternate sources of energy affect inclination towards energy substitutability, significantly or insignificantly. Furthermore, the study also tests a second hypothesis that government’s decision to associate income tax with level of energy consumption from electricity distribution companies will affect agriculturalist’s inclination to comply for the process of energy substitutability. Important stimuli for energy preferences such as information regarding alternate sources of energy and installment costs of efficient photovoltaic energy systems on the farm are also incorporated. Generalized Method of Moments was used to comprehensively establish the relationship between outreach of financial institutions as well as access to information about energy substitutability, upon the intent of farmers to switch towards other sources of energy. The results show that the policy to link energy consumption and income tax can be a good policy tool to ensure that the ongoing process of energy substitutability is sustainable in the long term. A need for state sponsored micro finance schemes as well as the provision of Amber & Green Subsidy, can create ease for farmers in attaining photo voltaic energy systems to ensure energy efficient solutions. Robust regression was used keeping in view the apprehension about the possible existence of heteroscedasticity in cross sectional data. Furthermore it can also be used in order to identify important observations.

Index Terms—Energy efficiency, financial exclusion, technology information, robust regression.

The authors are with the Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan (e-mail: syedtoqueer.research@gmail.com, ramzullahraja@gmail.com).

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Cite: Syed Toqueer Akhther and Raja Ramz Ullah, "Outreach of Financial Institutions, Access to Information and Energy Substitutability: A Case for Photovoltaic Energy Preferences in Agriculture Sector of Pakistan," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 621-629, 2016.