Charging Ahead: Prepaid Metering, Electricity Use, and Utility Revenue
研究南非开普敦将居民电表从后付费转为预付费的影响，发现用电量下降14%，公用事业净收入因回收成本降低而增加，尤其对贫困和欠费客户效果更显著。
Monthly bills for services such as electricity often go unpaid in developing countries. Prepaid meters offer a potential technological solution. In Cape Town, South Africa, over 4,000 residential customers on monthly billing were switched to prepaid metering, with random variation in the timing of the switch. In response, electricity use falls by 14 percent, driven at least in part by an increase in marginal price sensitivity. The decrease in revenue to the municipal electric utility is more than offset by lower revenue recovery costs. Switching poorer and more in-debt customers generates the greatest net revenue gains to the utility.