What does better mean? Perceptions of Electricity and Water Services in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo faces one of the poorest electricity and water services among Latin American cities, a situation which has prevailed for decades despite the significant welfare losses associated with such infrastructure deficiencies. In this context, how do households define these services? What areas of improvement would mean the most to them? This paper takes a consumer's centric-approach to address these questions, identifying specific dimensions of quality and reliability by which households perceptually define what better means. Further, preliminary evidence suggests that, regardless the prices of the services, end-user's satisfaction and disposition to pay would significantly increase with quality improvements.