The Power of Nudging: Using Feedback, Competition, and Responsibility Assignment to Save Electricity in a Non-residential Setting

Submitted by Michelle Blanc… on
EfD Authors:

Can behavioural interventions achieve energy savings in non-residential settings where users do not face the financial consequences of their behaviour? Our paper addresses this question by using high-frequency data, leveraging social comparison and responsibility assignment in a large provincial government office building with 24 floors, a total of 1008 occupants. Floors were divided into two treatments arms and a control group.

Energy, Policy Design

Household’s Choice of Healthcare Provider in Kenya

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on
EfD Authors:

People respond in different manners to various injuries or illnesses. Factors that influence response to illness or injuries are usually categorized into enabling factors, predisposing factors and perceived factors. These responses are self-treatment, seeking healthcare services from professional healthcare providers (private, public and mission healthcare facilities), seeking treatment from traditional healers and not seeking treatment at all. Despite an increase in the utilization rate of healthcare facilities, there is still a high prevalence of self-treatment among households in Kenya.

Health, Policy Design

Effect of Trade Openness on Ecological Footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on

This study explores the effect of international trade measured by trade openness and foreign direct investment flows on environmental quality measured by ecological footprint in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries.

Policy Design

Public Procurement as a Market and Financing Solution for Small and Medium Local Timber Producers and Processors in Tanzania

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on
EfD Authors:

In Tanzania, and across much of Africa, the potential impact of public procurement on sustainable growth of the local timber industry is not well understood. This is due to limited awareness of the local timber industry by government agencies responsible for public procurement, and vice versa. As a result, this existing gap hinders the opportunity for timber-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to access the public procurement market to grow sustainably, meet their operational costs, develop effective business skills, or purchase new technology for improved productivity.

Forestry, Policy Design

Does Scarcity Reduce Cooperation? Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on
EfD Authors:

Cooperation is essential to reap efficiency gains from specialization, not least in poor communities where economic transactions often are informal. Yet, cooperation might be more difficult to sustain under scarcity, since defecting from a cooperative equilibrium can yield safe, short-run benefits. In this study, we investigate how scarcity affects cooperation by leveraging exogenous variation in economic conditions induced by the Msimu harvest in rural Tanzania.

Agriculture, Policy Design

An Econometric Analysis of Maize Farmer’s Choice of Land Ownership System: Evidence Using Panel Data from Tanzania

Submitted by Salvatory Macha on
EfD Authors:

This paper determines the socioeconomic and physical characteristics that influence maize farmer’s choice of land ownership systems in Tanzania, i.e., owned, sharecropped, and rented title land. The paper uses the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TZNPS) data basing on 2,073 observations comprising of a sample size of 691 households in three consecutive waves 2008/2009, 2010/2011, and 2012/2013.

Agriculture, Policy Design

Productivity response and production risk: A study of mangrove forest effects in aquaculture in the Mekong River Delta

Submitted by Luat Do on

In Vietnam, most households that are allotted rights to mangrove forests are allowed to convert forestland into surface water to build mixed mangrove-shrimp farming systems. One result has been deforestation in mangrove forests in an effort to increase production. However, mangroves play multiple roles in shrimp yield, and their net effect is an empirical question. In addition, mangroves can reduce production risk, such that clearing mangroves can increase risk.

Forestry, Policy Design