Towards Dynamic Assessment of Determinants of Household Vulnerability to Poverty in Tanzania

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on
EfD Authors:

The paper examines the determinants of vulnerability to expected poverty in Tanzania. Following Landau et al. (2012), Chaudhuri (2000) and Chaudhuri et al. (2003) on estimating Vulnerability to Expected Poverty (VEP), the paper uses a three waves of Tanzania National Panel Survey Data for Tanzania collected between 2008/2009, 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 to find that being employed in agriculture, residing in rural area and household size turns out to be significantly more likely to be poor in the future, at a given consumption level and in all cross-section combination.

Experiments, Health

Economic valuation of forest ecosystem services in Kenya: Implications for design of PES schemes and participatory forest management

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

Forest ecosystem services are critical for human well-being as well as the functioning and growth of economies. However, despite the growing demand for these services, they are hardly given due consideration in public policy formulation. The values attached to these services by local communities in developing countries are also generally unknown. Using a case study of the Mau forest conservancy in Kenya, this study applied choice experiment techniques to estimate the value attached to salient forest ecosystem services by forest-adjacent communities.

Biodiversity, Experiments, Forestry, Land

Female microenterprise creation and business models for private sector distribution of low-cost off-grid LED lighting: Multiple Randomized Experiments

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on

Over 1.3bn people worldwide lack access to modern energy. In Africa alone 600m remain off-grid, 400m live in extreme poverty, and both numbers are expected to grow since grid expansion and economic growth are not predicted to keep pace with population growth. In addition, almost 6 million children under 5 die each year from preventable diseases, preliminary research suggesting that the primary causes are respiratory infections, and smoke from traditional lighting.

Energy, Experiments

Risk Preferences and the Impact of Credit and Insurance on Farm Technology Uptake

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

In this paper the authors use a series of credit and insurance simulation games to test the role of access to credit and insurance on magnitude and timing of farm technology uptake with small-scale farmers in South Africa. Using Cumulative Prospect Theory, they assess how insurance impacts technology uptake given risk preferences. Their findings suggest that risk aversion is linked to lower uptake of the insured technology. while loss averse farmers are more likely to adopt technology bundled with insurance.

Experiments

Saving water at Cape Town schools by using smart metering and behavioral change

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

The city of Cape Town suffered a severe water crisis in 2018. At the peak of the drought in South Africa's Western Cape, a randomized control trial at 105 schools investigated the impact of two behavioral interventions to encourage responsible water usage: detailed water usage data feedback from smart meters, and an interschool competition.

Experiments, Water