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Showing all content in Energy
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Publication - Project Report
Charting Pakistan’s air quality policy landscape
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Publication - Policy Brief
How to regulate exposure to air pollution
Airborne particulates kill millions of people each year. Analysis of global data describing particulate exposure suggests that an important component of exposure is determined by country-level policies. Statistically, the three best predictors of mean particulate exposure in a country are: Coal consumption, organic fuel consumption/agricultural burning, and urban...
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Project
Reducing Pakistan's circular debt: Facilitating growth through energy sector reforms
Pakistan's power sector is in crisis. Although subsidies protect consumers from the real costs, the government is burdened with serious debt. The stock of debt in the power sector has reached a staggering ~1.72 trillion rupees (£8.56bn), nearly 4% of GDP. In comparison, Pakistan spends just over 2.4% of GDP on education; more is spent on subsidising electricity prices each...
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Project
Reinventing Pakistan's welfare state: Replacing energy subsidies with targeted transfers
A welfare state faces two fundamental challenges: targeting people who need support the most and delivering the benefits in a cost-effective manner. In some developing countries, weak data leads to poor targeting, while weak institutions lead to poor delivery mechanisms. This means that these limited benefits are often availed by the less deserving, leaving less behind for...
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Publication - Working Paper
The determinants and implications of worker turnover in a nascent industry
In this paper we analyse the determinants of turnover in the Ethiopian garment industry. We find suggestive evidence that turnover is costly for both workers and firms. To increase turnover we conduct a pilot field experiment. We compare the effect of a retention bonus schemes and an unconditional bonus payment on worker retention. Surprisingly, we find no statistically...
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Blog post
Money or power? Choosing COVID-19 aid in Kenya
Participants in an experiment comparing demand for cash transfers and electricity subsidies in urban Kenya, overwhelmingly prefer cash given the proliferation of mobile money via platforms like M-PESA and preference for short-term liquidity. Conversely, in rural Kenya, slightly more respondents opted for electricity token transfers given that they face saving constraints...
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Project
Electric mobility and transport leapfrogging in Kigali, Rwanda
Rapid advances in technology, seen in fast-charging electric buses, electric motorbikes with replaceable batteries, dock less bicycles and scooters, and a host of other innovations, may have led to a greater change to way we think about urban transport over the last 5 years than over the previous 50. Whether these technologies succeed in helping address climate change,...
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Project
Determinants of global air pollution exposure
Air pollution is harmful to health and growing literature suggests it is also harmful to productivity. This project aims to understand the determinants of exposure, that is, concentrations of people living in polluted places. We plan to assess the reduction in exposure that follows from policy interventions affecting urbanisation, power generation, transportation,...
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Publication - Project Report
Off-grid lighting business models to serve the poor: Evidence from Rwanda
A significant proportion of the world’s population does not have access to grid-based electricity and so relies on off-grid lighting solutions. Rechargeable lamp technology is becoming prominent as an alternative off-grid lighting model in developing countries. In this paper, we explore the consumer behaviour and the operational inefficiencies that result under this...
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Event
IGC India event: Productive electricity use, supply quality and reform preferences in emerging economies
The reliability and access to electricity remain a challenge across much of rural India despite rapidly growing grid electrification rates. Small and medium-sized firms represent one-third of businesses in low-income countries but are also the most vulnerable to bad electric supply. A study conducted in four rural Indian states found that only 65% of firms are connected to...