Pay as You Go: Prepaid Metering and Electricity Expenditures in South Africa
利用南非开普敦十一年面板数据，研究预付费电表下不同收入家庭的购电行为，发现贫困家庭更频繁、小额度购电且多在发薪日购买，揭示其收入平滑困难及对标准月结账单的不适应。
High rates of customer default on utility bills present a barrier to the expansion of electricity access in the developing world. Pre-paid electricity metering offers a technological solution to ensuring timely payment. Using an eleven-year panel of pre-paid electricity customers in Cape Town, South Africa, we describe patterns of purchase behavior across property values, our measure of socioeconomic status. Poorer households buy electricity more often, in smaller increments, and are most likely to buy on payday. These patterns suggest difficulties smoothing income, and reveal a preference for small, frequent purchases that is incompatible with a standard monthly electricity billing cycle.