Event Information
On Monday the 25th of October there will be a EEU seminar with Pedro Naso. Pedro is currently a visiting researcher at Stockholm University and he is about to join the School of Economics at Henan University, China, as an Assistant Professor.
The seminar takes place on zoom at 12:05–13:00. The seminar will also be in person at the School of Business, Economics and Law, in room B44.
Pedro is available for individual meetings at the department in the afternoon. You can book your meeting using this link.
Pedro will present his paper "Delegation of Regulation and Perceived Corruption in South Africa" (see abstract below).
Biography
Pedro's research focuses on development economics and environmental economics. He has worked with issues related to environmental regulation in China and South Africa, legal pluralism in Sierra Leone, and the global management of natural resources. Pedro has recently published in European Economic Review and European Journal of Political Economy.
Abstract of paper presented:
In this paper, I study the economic motivations behind a reduction in the discretionary power of environmental inspectors and show the impact that such reduction has on perceived corruption in South Africa. I examine the transition from the Air Pollution Protection Act of 1965 to the Air Quality Act of 2005, a change from full to partial delegation of regulation. By constructing a principal-agent model, I argue that this transition might have occurred because of an increase in inspectors' rent-seeking motivation and capacity of appropriating rents. I then employ diff-in-diffs models for a two-period panel with 191 South African firms to show that the regulatory change decreased treated firms' perceived corruption, but did not improve other institutional quality measures.