Peskin, Henry M.2014-04-222014-04-222006-05https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17960Measuring consumer's surplus is an increasingly popular approach to quantifying the monetary benefits of energy projects at the World Bank. This paper provides a brief primer on the concept and addresses some concerns and criticisms for this method. The contents include: consumer demand - this paper assumes that the benefit measured by consumer's surplus is a satisfactory measure of the benefit of policy that brings about lower energy prices and considers key challenges in this approach; estimating the demand curve; are two points adequate for estimating the demand curve - a large gain in consumer's surplus is an expected outcome of the large fall in energy costs due to electrification; whose demand curve is it anyway; does willingness-to-pay overestimate ability-to-pay; why is consumer's surplus so large; aren't the estimates affected by subsidies and taxation; and why not simply ask consumers about their benefits from electrification.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOAPPROACHBATTERIESCONSUMER DEMANDCONSUMER SURPLUSCONSUMERSCONSUMPTION LEVELSCONTINGENT VALUATIONDEMAND CURVEDEMAND CURVESELECTRICITYELECTRICITY DEMANDELECTRICITY SUPPLYENERGY CONSUMPTIONENERGY COSTSENERGY DEMANDENERGY NEEDSENERGY POLICIESENERGY POLICYENERGY PRICESINCOMEKEROSENELIVING STANDARDSMARKET PRICEMICROECONOMIC ANALYSISPRICE CHANGESPRICE OF ELECTRICITYPUBLIC UTILITIESRURAL ELECTRIFICATIONSUBSTITUTESURPLUSTAXATIONTRANSITION ECONOMIESWEALTH10.1596/17960