indicators – number of procedures, time and cost – in line with the methodology for other Doing Business indicators by averaging the percentile rankings on the component indicators.

Because we examine how far the process of obtaining an electricity connection differs depending on whether the responsible distribution utility is majority privately or publicly owned, we also collected data from the publicly available sources such as the websites of the surveyed utilities on the ownership composition of each utility in November 2011. We created a dummy variable for ownership which is 0 in the cases where more than 50% of the utility is government owned (this includes ownership by local government such as municipalities) and is 1 in those cases where more than 50% of the ownership of the utility is in private hands. As per this definition, 133 utilities in our sample are considered government owned and 50 are privately owned.

# _Other variables_

We are interested in the relationship between the new getting electricity indicators and three sets of variables.

First, we look at the relationship of the new indicator with outcome variables for the electricity sector. As outcome variables, we use data on the number of people with electricity access as a percentage of total population (“Electrification rate”) as collected by the International Energy Agency. We also examine the relationship with the percentage of electric power transmission and distribution losses as percentage of output<sup>9</sup> as collected by the International Energy Agency from the Energy Statistics and Balances of Non-OECD Countries and Energy Statistics of OECD Countries, and the United Nations’ Energy Statistics Yearbook. A substantial amount of energy is lost in the electricity transmission and distribution system by way of technical and non-technical losses such as electricity theft. In addition, shutdowns and breakdowns in the system also prevent the delivery of energy to end-consumers causing revenue loss. Successful utilities manage revenue by minimizing loss and maximizing energy delivery to end-consumers. Transmission and distribution losses are hence a useful measure of the technical efficiency of the electricity system. We also test the relationship between the new data and the “Perception of the Quality of Electricity” and the “Frequency of Bribe Payments to Public Utilities” as of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Indicators. Lastly, we use data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys on the percentage of sales lost due to power outages reported by managers. We also compare the new data with other data on the relative strength of regulatory institutions for

> 9 Technical loss is inherent in electrical systems, as all electrical devices have some resistance and the flow of currents causes a power loss. Every element in a power system (a line or a transformer) offers resistance to power flow and, thus, consumes some energy while performing the duty expected of it. The cumulative energy consumed by all these elements is classified as “Technical Loss.” Technical losses are due to energy dissipated in the conductors and equipment used for Transmission, Transformation, Sub-transmission and Distribution of Power. These occur at many places in a distribution and transmission system − in lines, mid-span joints and terminations transformers, service cables and connections, etc.

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