Reducing nonpayment for public utilities: Experimental evidence from South Africa

Szabó, Árpád; Ujhelyi, Gergely

doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.06.002

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Furthermore, the pattern of action and backsliding is also reminiscent of a series of studies that document this outcome in response to home energy reports (Allcott and Rogers, 2014), flood insurance (Gallagher, 2014), electricity and running water bills (Gilbert and Zivin, 2013;Szabo and Ujhelyi, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Nudging the Self-employed into Contributing to Social Security: Evidence from a Nationwide Quasi Experiment in Brazil

Villa¹,

Fernandes²,

Bosch³

2015

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Nudging the Self-employed into Contributing to Social Security: Evidence from a Nationwide Quasi Experiment in Brazil

Villa¹,

Fernandes²,

Bosch³

2015

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“…In response, the utility considered two strategies to improve revenue collection: (i) an engagement approach to encourage payment; and (ii) service contract enforcement that allowed for disconnection for nonpayment. 3 Both approaches are commonly used by utilities around the world to improve revenue collection efficiency, but limited evidence exists on their costs and benefits (Hernandez and Laird, 2019;Szabó and Ujhelyi, 2015). In this paper we report on the results of a field experiment designed to test both strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi's Informal Settlements

Coville¹,

Galiani²,

Gertler³

et al. 2021

Policy Research Working Papers

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We estimate the impacts of two interventions implemented as field experiments in informal settlements by Nairobi's water and sanitation utility to improve revenue collection efficiency and last mile connection loan repayment: (i) face-to-face engagement between utility staff and customers to encourage payment and (ii) contract enforcement for service disconnection due to nonpayment in the form of transparent and credible disconnection notices. While we find no effect of the engagement, we find large effects of enforcement on payment. We also find no effect on access to water, perceptions of utility fairness or quality of service delivery, on the relationships between tenants and property owners, or on tenant mental well-being nine months after the intervention. To counterbalance the increase in payments, property owners increased rental income by renting out additional space. Taken together these results suggest that transparent contract enforcement was effective at improving revenue collection efficiency without incurring large social or political costs.

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“…Most households have predominantly been subjected to postpaid billing, and just lately, there has been a significant shift toward the prepaid metering system [2]. This shift is due to the fact that with a postpaid metering system, users are billed, and monthly payments are based on overall usage, which means that service takes precedence over payment [1], [3], [4]; prepaid metering, on the other hand, requires the user to purchase tokens and units before electricity usage [5]. Electricity was first provided in Nigeria through a postpaid metering system, this requires DISCO staff to manually interpret meter readings and consumers pay for the electricity that has already been used.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Prepaid Metering Systems on Customer Satisfaction in Niger State, Nigeria

Aribisala

Mohammed

2021

JD-FEWS

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Energy consumers in Nigeria have long complained about Distribution Companies' unfair billing practices, exorbitant monthly electricity bills resulting from meter estimation rather than accurate meter reading and calculation based on uninterrupted electricity use. The objectives of the study were to establish the relationship between the prepaid metering system and customer satisfaction; and to evaluate the level of satisfaction with respect to the usage of the prepaid metering system in Niger State, Nigeria. In carrying out the study, the structured questionnaire was administered to 393 randomly chosen respondents drawn from prepaid meter users, out of which 344 responded generating a response rate of 87.5%. The data derived were subjected to spearman correlation and multiple regression models. The major findings from the study showed a significant, moderate and positive relationship between the prepaid metering system and customer satisfaction. Additionally, three significant predictors, Affordability, Availability and Flexibility with p < .01 are statistically significant. Further findings from descriptive statistics revealed that users had the highest level of satisfaction with the privacy they had as a result of no meter readers and no accumulated. The study concluded that there exist a positive and beneficial link between the prepaid metering system and customer satisfaction. The study therefore recommends the provision of a smart metering system, good customer care units and a marketing campaign for better knowledge of the prepaid metering system.

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Reducing nonpayment for public utilities: Experimental evidence from South Africa

Cited by 27 publications

References 42 publications

Nudging the Self-employed into Contributing to Social Security: Evidence from a Nationwide Quasi Experiment in Brazil

Nudging the Self-employed into Contributing to Social Security: Evidence from a Nationwide Quasi Experiment in Brazil

Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi's Informal Settlements

The Effects of Prepaid Metering Systems on Customer Satisfaction in Niger State, Nigeria

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