Understanding electricity billing preferences in rural and urban India: Evidence from a conjoint experiment

Jason Chun Yu Wong, Brian Blankenship, Johannes Urpelainen, Kanika Balani, Karthik Ganesan and Kapardhi Bharadwaj

Energy Economics, 2022, vol. 106, issue C

Abstract: To address issues of non-payment, high costs, and theft, paying a fixed fee for electricity is common among many developing countries. We use a conjoint experiment to study electricity billing preferences among urban and rural communities in Uttar Pradesh, India. We find that 59.5% of respondents (95% CI: 58.2%–60.9%) prefer consumption-based tariffs as opposed to fixed fee ones, favoring lower base charges among a number of factors. We additionally use Bayesian Additive Regression Trees to test for heterogeneous treatment effects. Respondents with more appliances, using more hours of electricity, and who live in rural areas with meters prefer consumption-based plans with lower base rates. Our results suggest that policy reforms should move beyond fixed rate schemes especially if respondents would accept higher unit tariffs with improved service.

Keywords: Billing; Consumer preferences; Rural–urban differences; Universal access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D10 H31 O13 O21 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:106:y:2022:i:c:s0140988321005831

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105735

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