Omer Karaduman
Stanford University
Monday, April 20, 2026
4:10-5:10pm
241 Giannini Hall, UC Berkeley
Who Paid for the U.S. Power Grid? Evidence from 1930–1988
Abstract: This ongoing project asks a simple question: Who paid for the U.S. power grid? I assemble new historical data on major investor-owned utilities covering revenues, sales, and typical bills by customer class over the period 1930–1988. These data allow me to study both how total costs were allocated across customer classes (residential, commercial, and industrial) and how those costs were distributed within classes across different usage levels. The goal is to document how the burden of electricity cost recovery evolved over time, and to explore whether certain customer groups were systematically favored in rate design. At this stage, the focus is on establishing empirical patterns that can inform broader questions about the incidence of regulated cost recovery and the design of electricity pricing.