Do blackout baby booms exist and why?

Determining whether power outages have significant fertility effects is an important policy question in developing countries, where blackouts are common and modern forms of family planning scarce. Using birth records from Zanzibar, this paper shows that a 2008 month-long blackout caused a significant, 20% increase in the number of births eight to ten months later. The increase is similar across villages that had electricity, regardless of the level of electrification, while villages with no electricity connections saw no changes in birth numbers. This pattern is consistent with the blackout causing a common village shock that increased the overall likelihood of pregnancy. Household surveys confirm that people were more likely to consume their leisure inside the home during the blackout, suggesting a possible linkage between time use and fertility outcomes. While it is unclear whether the baby boom is likely to translate to a permanent increase in the population, the paper highlights an important hidden consequence of power instability in developing countries. JEL Classification: J13, J22, O15.