In sub-Saharan Africa, urban recreational ecosystem services are browning and disappearing despite the global recognition of their importance. We study the availability, preference, and determinants of visitations to urban recreational ecosystem services in Dar es Salaam. The results show that, amongst the functioning and publicly owned recreational ecosystem services, there are botanical gardens and other open green spaces with greenery (e.g., trees, grass, or gardens) and sometimes with basic facilities such as benches.

Does public transportation reduce vehicle congestion? Using a regression-discontinuity framework, we examine the effect of six subway openings on short-run congestion in Beijing between 2009 and 2015. We find that vehicle congestion drops sharply immediately after new subway openings. In our central specification, each of the subway openings decreased delay times by an average of 15% in the short run over the city of Beijing.

This paper uses three rounds of a rich panel data set to investigate the determinants of household cooking fuel choice and energy transition in urban Ethiopia. It is observed that the expected energy transition did not occur following economic growth in Ethiopia during the decade 2000–2009.

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze water demand by urban households in Rwanda who currently lack a piped connection into their home. The analysis uses data from a cross-sectional survey. The results show that public taps are the most widely used water source and that the demand for water from this source is more inelastic than that for water from other water sources. Although some households combine different sources of water, the majority in the sample uses only one source.

Using three rounds of survey data that cover a decade, we analyze household preferences for energy types and energy choice in urban Ethiopia. We find that, during 2000-2009, households in major cities of Ethiopia used multiple fuels as their income increased. Increased fuelwood prices encourage consumption of cleaner fuels, such as electricity, while increased kerosene prices encourage solid fuel consumption. Better educated households are more likely to consume cleaner fuels.

Unlike most studies of subjective well-being in developing countries, we use a fixed effects regression on three rounds of rich panel data to investigate the impact of relative standing on
life satisfaction of respondents in urban Ethiopia.