Power’s Promise: Electricity Reforms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Abstract

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Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on expenditure patterns of recipient households? The Moldovan Case

“…Although the share of expenditures related to housing and utility is slightly increasing across the welfare distribution in Moldova (NBS 2012:88), the differences are relatively small. Moreover, in many countries of the former Soviet Union, the share of utility expenditures is similar in poor and rich households (see, e.g., Lampietti et al 2007;Gassmann, 2014). In the case of clothing, however, income appears to be uncorrelated with the share of expenditure on clothes.…”

Rising Energy Prices in Moldova: Macroeconomic and Distributional Impact

“…However, it is reasonable to expect that with the price of electricity and natural gas increasing, households (and rural households, in particular, who are more likely to be poor) will indeed switch to less expensive but dirtier sources of energy and this may lead to significant health and environmental costs. In particular, the use of dirty fuels causes indoor and outdoor air pollution and elevates health risks (Lampietti, 2004). Table 4 and main text for a description of the two scenarios.…”

Reducing nonpayment for public utilities: Experimental evidence from South Africa

“…However, consumers' ability or willingness to pay for services can be an important constraint to investment in infrastructure. For example, the difficulty to collect unpaid bills has been cited as a major obstacle to improving electricity provision in India (Ahluwalia, 2002), the former Soviet Union (Lampietti et al, 2007), and Colombia (McRae, 2015). In South Africa, nonpayment presents a major problem for local governments and prevents the efficient use of the existing infrastructure for electricity, water, and sanitation.…”