Data and Code for: The Price of Power: Costs of Political Corruption in Indian Electricity

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Meera Mahadevan

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Corr Elec Replication AER 07/08/2024 12:36:PM

Project Citation: 

Mahadevan, Meera. Data and Code for: The Price of Power: Costs of Political Corruption in Indian Electricity. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-08-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/E205702V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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%, 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 $0.9 billion, leading to unreliable electricity supply and significant negative consequences for development. This deposit contains the data and code for this project.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources University of Michigan MITRE

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      H11 Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
      O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
      P16 Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
      Q40 Energy: General
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage india
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) observational data; program source code


Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V1 [2024-08-16]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as received from the data depositor. As of April 2026, depositors are required to submit study materials in accessible formats. ICPSR has not reviewed, checked, or processed this material. For additional information about the study, please contact the investigator(s) directly. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR's Accessibility Center.