Understanding and Improving Bill Payment in Ghana

Given that over 50% of Ghana Water Company Limited's (GWCL) customers do not pay their bills regularly, concerns about the efficiency and sustainability of the supplier in supplying safe water through the piped system in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 6 have been raised. This study builds on the ongoing work in the Natural Capital Collaborative's Water Systems Group, extends it to a new developing nation, and investigates a brand-new cause of bill non-payment that has not yet been considered by the collaborative but might be used in other nations. This study seeks to both understand and improve bill payment among customers of GWCL in Ghana. Our study departs from existing studies by proposing two identification strategies (i.e., a panel regression and regression discontinuity) and using administrative data to estimate bill payments in an experimental setting while examining a variety of information treatments, incentives, and operational changes at the utility level and consumers' responses to bill payments.