Political Favoritism and the Targeting of Power Outages
The project is concerned with Ghana's power crisis, and it builds upon research used to create a Power Supply Irregularity index
Abstract
The projects concerns with the Ghana’s power crisis. It aims to develop and refine a new measure of power outages using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data. It introduces a new measure of power supply reliability and outages based upon temporal variations in night-time light output observed by earth observing satellites. This work builds upon ongoing research that has been used to create a Power Supply Irregularity (PSI_D) index. In addition, it quantifies variations in outages across space and time in Ghana. It extends the methodology to create a new PSI_V measure that takes advantage of vastly improved night-time lights data being collected by the newer Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite. Finally, it explains political sources of variations in outages and their electoral impacts. Drawing on detailed electoral data, the project examines how prior election results have shaped the political pressure applied on Ghana’s state utilities to deliver electricity.
This work is part of the International Growth Centre’s ‘The Political Economy of Power Outages in Ghana: A New Measure of Power Reliability and Analysis’ project
Citation
Brian Min (2019) Political Favoritism and the Targeting of Power Outages. IGC. Reference E-89442-GHA-1
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