Ўзбекистон иқтисодчилари XIII форуми

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). The duration of power outages shortened by 16 hours, decreasing from 18 
hours in 2008 to 2 hours in 2019. However, loss of electricity varies across sectors (see
Figure
 2 in Appendix). Turning to the average electricity consumption across industries, on average, 
firms’ electricity consumption is around 722 MWh per year (see ce: 
The authors’ own estimates. 
 
Figure 3
in Appendix). The most energy-reliant sectors are machine and equipment, textiles, and 
food sectors, while the lowest amount of electricity is consumed by publishing, printing, and recording, 
transport, wood, and construction sectors.
Investing in infrastructure can be a key to economic recovery and further development. As empirical 
studies report, the effect of infrastructure improvements is greater in developing countries than the developed 
in terms of magnitude [35]. According to Allcott et al. [36], a growth in electric generation and roads are 
accounted for a half of productivity growth observed in India over 1972–1992. These findings indicate local 
regions have to focus on improving infrastructure—electricity, roads, telecommunications as well as water 
and sanitation facilities. Overall, power outages generate direct and indirect effects. Unreliable electricity 
may affect firms through distinctive impact channels: direct, indirect, and mitigation [7].
Under direct impact, electricity outages slow down firms’ operations, make them to underutilise their 
full capacity, reduce total sales [7], [37], and cause delays in supply chains. Electricity blackouts may induce 
additional externalities which are not directly observable. These indirect effects influence business 
investments, product development, structure and innovations in a particular industry. 
A further channel of outages’ impact is mitigation strategies requiring additional costs for 
businesses. For instance, firms affected by disruptions may invest in a backup power generator that eliminate 
power blackouts. Under this measure, firms face both higher operational expenses and upfront purchases that 
inhibit productive investments [7].