Abdulrazzak Tamim

Work in Progress

Rationing in an Urban Water Market

I develop a simple model of urban water allocation under capacity constraints, comparing the welfare effects of rationing by intermittent supply, uniform quotas, and optimal pricing. I find that rationing imposes technological costs, while quotas create allocative inefficiency. I estimate the model’s key parameters using the universe of meter-level billing data from Amman, Jordan and a geographic regression discontinuity design that exploits spatial variation in supply schedules.

Ethiopia’s Electronic Water Bill Payments: A Randomized Controlled Trial

While numerous studies examine mobile money adoption for firms and person-to-person transfers, evidence on electronic bill payments for utilities remains scarce. We address this gap with a randomized controlled trial in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where despite availability of multiple electronic payment channels, most households pay water bills in person. We randomly assign households to receive a discount or e-payment training. This design identifies price sensitivity and information barriers in utility payment digitalization, informing Ethiopia’s national digital transformation agenda.

Co-authors:

Tsega Adego Abebe, Joseph Levine