Unplugged and unhappy? Power outages and effects on public well-being

Abstract

Power outages pose significant challenges to the well-being of people in developing countries, yet rigorous empirical evidence remains limited. This study utilizes panel data from the General Household Survey (2016–2018) to examine their impact on subjective well-being in South Africa. This research employs fixed-effect models and propensity score matching to address potential endogeneity issues observed in our study. The findings show that power outages lead to a significant decline in happiness, primarily driven by interruptions to routine cooking activities such as reduced reliance on electric stoves and fewer prepared meals. The analysis reveals that rural and metropolitan households are particularly affected. Income-based comparisons further show that lower-income households experience significant declines in happiness following outages. The results highlight the need for energy policies that are both spatially targeted and socially inclusive, ensuring that infrastructure investment and support measures reach the communities that need them most.