Technical Efficiency of renewable electricity production in SSA

Though institutional quality has been identified to improve economic performance, the literature on renewable electricity has conspicuously neglected the role institutional quality plays in ensuring the efficiency of renewable electricity production in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper addresses this gap by investigating the role of economic and political institutional quality in technical efficiency of production of renewable electricity.. Using stochastic frontier model, the paper finds that technical efficiency of production of renewable electricity is 57%, suggesting that most countries in SSA are farther away from their production frontier. Both economic and political institutional quality contribute significantly to reducing technical inefficiency of production of renewable electricity. The paper recommends for enforcement of existing laws that enhance economic and political institutional quality to raise efficiency of production of renewable electricity.