Environment and Climate Change

Flood Risk and Differential Firm Investment: Evidence from Dakar, Senegal

In many urban communities in low- and middle-income countries, the start of the rainy season is not a welcome relief, but instead a source of persistent problems. Heavy rainfall, coupled with insufficient drainage and minimal urban planning results in regular, seasonal flooding of homes and businesses (Rentscheler et al. (2023)). In urban and suburban Dakar, rising floodwaters pose a multitude of challenges for people living in these areas by restricting movement, increasing the risk of disease, and causing death (C40 CFF (2021)).

Research Project
18 Dec 2024

Bricks to Blocks: Information and Coordination Challenges for Transitioning to a Cleaner Building Technology

While lack of policies are often considered as constraints to green growth, this project will investigate the challenges surrounding the adoption of eco-friendly construction materials in Bangladesh. Specifically, the project will focus on promoting the substitution of fired clay bricks (FCBs) with soil-stabilized blocks (SSBs) in public contracts and the construction industry as a whole.

Research Project
3 Dec 2024

Flooding and Firms in Indonesia

Low- and middle-income countries, with their economic centers often located in vulnerable areas, are expected to bear the brunt of climate change impacts. Indonesia faces an elevated risk of disasters, with floods posing the most significant threat.

Publication
2 Dec 2024

Informed Climate Adaptation: Input and Output Subsidies for Shaded Cocoa

With growing climate risks, agro-environmental policies seek to protect the environment while reducing poverty by incentivizing climate adaptation.

Working Paper
20 Nov 2024

Pollution, Productivity and Willingness to Pay for Defensive Investments

This project consists in a field experiment with randomized allocation of air purifiers in small-scale textile firms in Bangladesh to estimate firms’ and households’ willingness to pay for air purifiers.

Research Project
7 Nov 2024

Enabling electric vehicle adoption with innovative financing and infrastructure

This project proposes a field experiment in which the researchers create variation in financial contract form and access to charging infrastructure to evaluate the barriers to electric two-wheelers adoption in Kenya.

Research Project
29 Oct 2024

Encouraging adoption of energy efficiency improvements among SMEs: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Ethiopi

In this proposed study, the research team focuses on small and medium enterprises in Ethiopia and investigates the effect of lifting knowledge and information barriers in increasing adoption of energy efficiency measures.

Research Project
29 Oct 2024

Renewable Energy for the Growth of Enterprises in Africa: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

In this project, the research team proposes investigating how to shift the energy use behavior of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tanzania by distributing affordable solar boilers and measuring their impact on charcoal consumption and its corresponding effects on deforestation and CO2 emission, PM2.5 concentration, and profitability of enterprises.

Research Project
29 Oct 2024

Constraints to the adoption of renewable energy technologies by SMEs in Sierra Leone

This project aims at understanding barriers to the uptake of renewable energy technologies among SMEs in Sierra Leone.

Research Project
29 Oct 2024

The Economic Value of Improved Electricity Reliability

This project assesses medium-term economic impacts of improved electricity reliability by leveraging persistent discontinuities in electricity reliability across nearby areas in Kenya that are serviced by different feeder lines.

Research Project
28 Oct 2024

Pages