Marc Jeuland, applied environmental economist, presented his research titled Time-money tradeoffs and the value of the time that women spend obtaining firewood on November 15 at the launch of Environment for Development Seminar Series.
This was the first presentation in the webinar series of EfD, which intends to feature two types of research works. Some seminars will be open to all researchers interested in environmental and development economics, presenting high-quality, and polished research. Some seminars will be open only to EfD members, and guests invited by the presenter. The idea is that, in addition to presenting work at advanced stages, researchers will also be able to present preliminary work.
After an opening speech from EfD Director Gunnar Köhlin, Marcela Jaime, co-leader of SETI and Director of NENRE EfD Chile, proceeded to chair the meeting with an audience of over 70 participants.
Value of time and energy needs are linked
The research results Marc presented are focused on the value of time and interventions that can reduce the time of certain tasks. Women are responsible for providing much of household labor for gathering fuel from the environment, especially firewood, and many rural households rely heavily on biomass as a primary fuel for cooking, lighting, and heating.
Estimating the value of time that might be saved from interventions aimed at reducing the amount of biomass needed, or transitioning households away from biomass entirely, is crucial to understanding health, environmental, and social benefits, as well as the cost of traditional energy use.
To do so, and considering the limited prior work in this area, Marc Jeuland and his colleagues, including SETI fellows, have analyzed time-money tradeoffs that rural households make in four African countries when deciding how to obtain firewood: Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Results showed that households make logical tradeoffs between money and time and that other factors, like socioeconomic status and the identity of the person collecting firewood, play an important role in their choice.
About the presenter
Marc Jeuland has an extensive research history in nonmarket valuation, water and sanitation, environmental health, energy and development, the planning and management of transboundary water resources, and the impacts and economics of climate change.
If you missed the seminar or want to see it again it’s available on the EfD website.
By: Belén Pulgar.