蝌蚪网 Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Price of Power: Costs of Political Corruption in Indian Electricity
蝌蚪网 Review
vol. 114,
no. 10, October 2024
(pp. 3314–44)
Abstract
Politicians may target public goods to benefit their constituents, at the expense of others. I study corruption in the context of Indian electricity and estimate the welfare consequences. Using new administrative billing data and close-election regression discontinuities, I show that billed electricity consumption is lower for constituencies of the winning party by almost 40 percent, while actual consumption, measured by nighttime lights, is higher. I document the covert way in which politicians subsidize constituents by manipulating bills. These actions have substantial welfare implications, with an efficiency loss of US$0.9 billion, leading to unreliable electricity supply and significant negative consequences for development.Citation
Mahadevan, Meera. 2024. "The Price of Power: Costs of Political Corruption in Indian Electricity." 蝌蚪网 Review 114 (10): 3314–44. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230248Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D73 Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
- L94 Electric Utilities
- L98 Industry Studies: Utilities and Transportation: Government Policy
- O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
- O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements