Regulatory independence, service quality and performance of firms: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Regulatory independence, service quality and performance of firms: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Regulatory independence, service quality and performance of firms: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Franky Brice AFIA KOGUEDA, Ishmael ACKAH, Maame Esi ESHUN This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8581893/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Regulations have been found to facilitate quality of service and energy access if properly designed and implemented. To test this hypothesis, the study analyzes the impact of independent regulation on the quality of electricity service in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In doing this, we use the double difference method on the data collected by the World Bank from 33,660 companies in 39 SSA countries. The findings show that the quality of regulation exercised by an efficient and responsible regulatory authority leads to better quality of service by companies and limits their economic losses. On the other hand, the results show that independent regulation in itself does not improve the quality of service. This implies that regulatory independence should be exercised with other strategies such as enforcement and effective stakeholder management to achieve better outcomes. JEL Classification: L51, L94, C22 independent regulation quality of service firm double difference Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8581893","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":575051315,"identity":"63e8993d-144b-4ec7-8469-295b3fb367e7","order_by":0,"name":"Franky Brice AFIA KOGUEDA","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Research Group in Economics and Management, University of Douala","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Franky","middleName":"Brice AFIA","lastName":"KOGUEDA","suffix":""},{"id":575051316,"identity":"793cd338-38b7-4bf0-a609-b23d09565c2b","order_by":1,"name":"Ishmael 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