Abstract
Over a billion people lack access to electricity, instead relying on kerosene and other dirty lighting sources, while grid expansion is not expected to keep pace with population growth. Moreover, pneumonia is the leading cause of death for under-fives in the world and kerosene smoke is a significant risk factor.
She is dividing her time between the Indian Statistical Institute in Delhi, the International Growth Centre’s India program, and the Institute of Labour Economics in Bonn. Currently, she is leading…
EfD’s Annual Meeting is approaching and the award jury is busy evaluating all the qualified nominees for Gunnar Köhlin’s Best Master Thesis Award. In the meantime, let’s meet last year’s winner…
WinEED (Women in Environmental Economics for Development) conducted their first seminar on September 27, in series that will be a monthly recurring event. This inaugural seminar was held in…
Rational antibiotic prescribing is crucial to combat antibiotic resistance. Optimal strategies to improve antibiotic use are not known. Strama, the Swedish strategic program against antibiotic resistance, has been successful in reducing antibiotic prescription rates. This study investigates whether two specific interventions directed toward healthcare centers, an informational visit and a self-evaluation meeting, played a role in observed reduction in rates of antibiotic prescriptions in primary healthcare.
COVID-19 is currently having major short run effects with possible serious long run implications for the environment and the management of natural resources in Latin America. We discuss the possible effects of the pandemic on air pollution, deforestation and other relevant environmental dimensions across the region. With contributions from environmental economists from eight countries, we give an overview of the initial and expected environmental effects of this health crisis.
This paper reviews the experience of a for-profit firm in Rwanda promoting biomass pellets and a fan micro-gasification improved cookstove as a clean cooking alternative to charcoal. Consumers purchase locally produced biomass pellets and receive the improved cookstove on a lease basis. The cost of the pellets and stove(s) is lower than the cost of cooking with charcoal in the urban setting where our study takes place. Inyenyeri has been piloting its business model since 2012.
Exposure to household air pollution (HAP) from cooking and heating with solid fuels is major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Children under five are particularly at risk for acute lower respiratory infection. We use baseline data from randomized controlled trial evaluating a household energy intervention in Gisenyi, Rwanda to investigate the role of the microenvironment as a determinant of children's HAP-related health symptoms. Our sample includes 529 households, with 694 children under five.
Because the main modes of transmission of the COVID-19 virus are respiration and contact, WHO recommends frequent washing of hands with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds. This article investigates how the level of concern about COVID-19 affects the likelihood of washing hands frequently in sub-Saharan Africa. The study makes use of a unique survey dataset from 12 sub-Saharan African countries collected in April 2020 (first round) and May 2020 (second round) and employs an extended ordered probit model with an endogenous covariate.
