The Center for Global Sustainability is pleased to welcome Johannes Urpelainen to the Spring 2019 CGS Forums.
He will be presenting on "To Steal, or Not to Steal: Attitudes towards Electricity Theft in Northern India”. Power theft remains rampant in many countries, posing an obstacle to effective electricity sector reform and ensuring proper, safe access to power. In India, electricity theft is estimated to account for 20-25 percent of generated power. One reason why existing policies have failed to curb theft could be because of a prevailing social norm of acceptance. The authors examine factors affecting the social acceptance of theft activity, including the social and economic contexts of the offenders, existing power supply quality, as well as the respondent's own socioeconomic circumstances. Using a randomized survey experiment, they study perceptions of theft in the form of using illegal nightlines katiya among rural and urban households in Uttar Pradesh, India (n=1800).