Funded Projects | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

2025

Insuring Against Extreme Heat: A Randomised Evaluation

Oriana Bandiera
Amen Jalal
Ashley Pople
Pol Simpson

India

Full project

Heatwaves, intensified by climate change, hit the poorest the hardest. Many are exposed to dangerous temperatures through outdoor work or limited access to adaptive resources. In 2024, 37 cities in India surpassed 45°C (113°F), and around 40,000 heat stroke...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Take-up and Impacts of Parametric Insurance for Labor Supply under Climate Change

New Delhi National Capital Region

Pilot project

Heat stress increasingly poses a risk to low-income outdoor delivery workers in India, forcing them to face the precarious trade-off between dealing with heat-related health risks and foregone income by taking time-off. This can lead to higher costs for...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Labor Markets

Improving Climate Resilience in Rural Credit: A Randomized Evaluation in China

Xingchen Chen
Mengfu Han
Marc Johnson
Robyn Meeks
Zhenxuan Wang
Junjie Zhang

China

Pilot project

Climate change is increasingly destabilizing rural credit markets by raising default risks for agricultural loans. Extreme weather events – such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall – can significantly reduce farm yields, jeopardizing loan repayment. However, rural...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Agriculture

Strategic Framings for Climate Change Adaptation Legislation in Brazil

Amanda de Albuquerque
Ernesto Dal Bó
Jonathan Chang
Frederico Finan
Clarissa Gandour

Brazil

Pilot project

What types of messages most effectively mobilize policymakers to pass climate adaptation and mitigation legislation? This pilot investigates how strategic framings can spur local legislators in Brazil to pass climate legislation promoting low-carbon, resilient...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Political Economy and Governance

Conservation and Livelihoods Benefits of Treeplanting

Jenny Aker
Aram Kazandjian
Maarten Voors

Sierra Leone

Pilot project

Logging and forest fires to clear land for agriculture are among the main drivers of tree loss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Deforestation rates are increasing at an alarming rate, with large local and global consequences. Programs for large-scale tree planting are...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Pakistan's Solar Lottery: Evaluating the Impact of Free Solar Panel Installations on Grid-Connected, Low-Income, Households in Punjab, Pakistan

Husnain Ahmad
Ayesha Ali
Javed Jounas
Robyn Meeks
Zhenxuan Wang

Punjab, Pakistan

Full project

In many settings, electricity is subsidized, particularly with subsidies aimed at ensuring the poorest households have access to some low quantity of electricity services. How to deliver such subsidies cost-effectively, particularly in contexts in which...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Leveraging Technology to Prioritize Environmental Enforcement

Doreen Boyd
Ro'ee Levy
Martin Mattsson
Sumil Thakrar

Bangladesh

Pilot project

Air pollution is one of the most serious threats to human health in South Asia. Still, environmental regulations are only partially enforced. The researchers test if a dashboard providing bureaucrats with information about the harm of different air pollution...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Firms

Disseminating weather forecasts to farmers to promote climate adaptation

Joshua Deutschmann
Michael Kremer
Sabareesh Ramachandran

Odisha

Path-to-scale project

Multiple randomized evaluations find that when farmers receive weather forecasts or weather-informed agricultural advisories, they adjust their agricultural decisions like area under cultivation, sowing or harvest dates, and timing or quantity of inputs. This...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Agriculture

2024

Preserving Mangroves and Livelihoods in Benin

Darin Christensen
Kevin Greico
Ambaliou Olounlade

Benin

Pilot project

Deforestation often comes from nearby communities who depend on forest products for their livelihood. The challenge for policymakers in these settings is twofold: preserving forest ecosystems while also alleviating the economic strain conservation efforts may...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Implementing Agroforestry in the Supply-Chain: Evidence from Coffee Farmers

Rocco Macchiavello
Arcade Nkundineza
Ameek Singh
Iris Steenkamp

Full project

Agroforestry—a land use system in which trees are grown among crops—can turn coffee farms into carbon sinks, sequestering up to 0.16 metric tons of CO2e per metric ton of coffee produced (IDH 2019). Agroforestry also supports climate change adaptation by...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Addressing Climate Change-Induced Drinking Water Scarcity in Coastal Bangladesh through Water Entrepreneurship

Mohammad Islamul Haque
Mushfiq Mobarak

Coastal Bangladesh

Pilot project

Climate change-induced saltwater intrusion has created a critical shortage of clean drinking water for 20 million people in coastal Bangladesh. Salinity in drinking water has led to an increased prevalence of hypertension and pre-eclampsia. Small-scale...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Real-Time Satellite Monitoring of Solid-Waste Dumpsites

Manuel Barron
Alipio Ferreira

Peru

Pilot project

This project plans to develop and deploy a satellite-based monitoring system to monitor compliance with safety measures at waste dump sites to mitigate the probability of fires. Waste sites are important sources of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

Scaling Contests for Cost-Effective Energy Conservation

Teevrat Garg
Jorge Lemus
Guillermo Marshall
Chi Ta

Hanoi

Full project

The energy sector in low-and-middle-income countries is characterized by high rates of particulate and carbon emissions per unit of electricity generated and low electricity reliability. To reduce air pollution levels and increase reliability, utilities have...

Environment, Energy, and Climate Change

2023

Increasing the Efficiency of Climate and Air Quality Regulation through Machine Learning at the United States Environmental Protection Agency

Michael Greenstone

Colorado

Path-to-scale project

Facility inspections represent a key enforcement practice across regulatory domains, but they are costly, infrequent, and detect only a small fraction of violations. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) typically relies on inspection targeting...

Scaling Cleaner Brick Manufacturing in Bangladesh

Nina Brooks
Stephen Luby
Grant Miller

Bangladesh

Path-to-scale project

The approximately 7,000 brick kilns in Bangladesh generate 11% of the country’s particulate matter, 22% of black carbon, and 17% of total annual CO2 emissions. The researchers developed an intervention, Zigzag 2.0, which offered brick kiln owners and operators...

Behavioral Interventions to Address Climate Change Induced Salinization in Bangladesh

Nusrat Abedin Jimi
Saravana Ravindran
Abu Shonchoy

Bangladesh

Pilot project

Climate change has induced progressive salinization of low-elevated coastal zones in many parts of the world. Bangladesh, in particular, is vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its geographic proximity to the ocean and low-lying topography...

Using Targeting to Replace Distortionary Subsidies: Direct Benefit Transfers for Electricity

Andhra Pradesh

Path-to-scale project

India has been at the forefront of a movement to replace traditional in-kind or goods subsidies with cash transfers. The immediate benefit of such a change is to reduce leakage: the amount of a benefit that does not reach the beneficiary (Muralidharan, 2016...

Scaling the Distribution of Flood-tolerant Seeds for Rice Farmers in India

Kyle Emerick
Tomoko Harigaya

West Bengal

Path-to-scale project

West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP) and Precision Development (PxD) are collaborating in piloting successful interventions in promoting the adoption of flood-tolerant rice seeds (FTS). The interventions could enhance the...

EV-Flex: Testing Customer Price Sensitivity to Accept Managed Charging of their Electric Vehicles

Robert Metcalfe

United Kingdom

Full project

Electric vehicles (EVs) could play a critical role in decarbonizing the transportation sector. Decarbonization will only take place, however, if the EVs get their electricity from low- or zero-carbon sources of electricity. In the short-term, an attractive way...

Migration in the Face of Climate Change: Assessing the Potential of Ultra-Poor Graduation Programs

Sreevidya Ayyar
Sarah Winton

Egypt

Full project

While macro models estimate high migration flows in response to climate change, little is known about why individual households migrate. This project studies the climate-driven migration decisions of ultra-poor agrarian households, who are among the most...

Market-Based Schemes for Air Pollutants

India

Path-to-scale project

Researchers are collaborating with the Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) of Gujarat and Maharashtra to design and scale emissions markets for air pollutants. The goal of these markets is to reduce the cost of compliance with environmental regulations and reduce...

Measuring the Effect of Emergency Cash Transfers on Household Resilience and Disaster Preparedness in the Philippines

Rachel Pizatella-Haswell

Philippines

Pilot project

The 2022 disaster risk global index ranked the Philippines first among 193 countries, illustrating the need for programs to support Filipinos impacted by disasters. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributes emergency cash transfers...

Take-up and Impact of Electricity Subsidies in the Developing World: Evidence from Indonesia

Rema Hanna
Ben Olken
Elan Satriawan
Sudarno Sumarto

Indonesia

Pilot project

Many countries subsidize electricity to increase access to affordable, reliable energy for people experiencing poverty and encourage shifts towards cleaner energy. Targeting progressive subsidies through electricity systems can be useful in low- and middle...

Learning about Preferences for Clean Air

Budy Resosudarmo
Yixin Sun

Indonesia

Pilot project

Despite the enormous health costs of air pollution, willingness-to-pay (WTP) for clean air in highly polluted low-income contexts remains very low. Researchers posit that one significant and understudied reason is that clean air is an experienced good, whose...

2022

Rainwater Harvesting in Urban Settings as a Response to Water Shortages

Paulina Oliva

Mexico

Pilot project

A third of Mexico City’s population receives piped water only during limited hours and suffers routine supply interruptions, and about one-tenth receives water less than twice per week. Piped water shortages have increased over time and are projected to worsen...

Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Linked Agricultural Advisory to Boost Coffee Farmer Productivity in Karnataka, India

Shawn Cole
Tomoko Harigaya
Vaishnavi Surendra

India

Pilot project

Weather uncertainty is a significant source of production risks, and is increasingly salient in the context of climate change. Short- to medium-range forecasts could help farmers optimize the timing of agricultural practices, increasing returns to agricultural...

Improving Smallholders’ Resilience to Climate Change: A Randomized Evaluation in Liberia

Liberia

Pilot project

Smallholder farmers are among those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Adoption rates of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in sub-Saharan Africa, where the twin challenges of food security and poverty are pervasive, remain particularly...

Improved Early Action through Precise Targeting, Timely Cash, and Early Warning to Mitigate the Impacts of Climate Shocks

Stefan Dercon
Rohini Kamal
Ashley Pople
Munshi Sulaiman
Rocco Zizzamia

Bangladesh

Full project

The project evaluates a targeted risk-informed early action pilot in response to floods in Bangladesh, testing efficacy of early warning messaging, timing of cash transfers, and data-driven innovations in targeting approaches. Through a randomized evaluation...

Can Natural Reforestation be Boosted by Formalizing Customary Land Rights? Evidence from Niger

Jules Bayala
Arnaud Dakpogan
Nathan Fiala
Karl Hughes
Ibrahim Ouattara
Hamed Constatin Tchibozo
Leigh Anne Winowiecki

Niger

Full project

The lack of participative forest regulation and inclusive forest governance have been disincentives for the adoption of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) for natural reforestation. There is currently missing evidence on how FMNR and the role of land...

Market Access, Infrastructure, and Climate Risk: Evidence from Randomized Bridge Construction

Rwanda

Full project

The majority of households in low- and middle-income countries live in rural areas where markets are poorly integrated and productivity is low. Climate variability, such as rainfall variation, is a key constraint to agricultural productivity. This project will...

Reducing Methane Emissions from the Oil and Gas Sector: An RCT of policy and technology solutions

Thomas Covert
Michael Greenstone

Colorado, United States of America

Full project

Curbing methane emissions is key to addressing climate change, and Colorado is at the forefront of methane regulation in the oil and gas sector. Researchers partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to improve monitoring...

Flood Early Warning Systems for Rural Populations in South Asia

Jennifer Allard
Maulik Jagnani
Rohini Pande

India

Full project

Between 2011-20, floods caused over 45,000 deaths with most occurring in lower-income countries. Early warning systems (EWS) for floods can lower human and economic losses and improve post-flood recovery. But underdeveloped dissemination infrastructure in...

Use of Air Purifiers in Households in Dhaka

Teevrat Garg
Maulik Jagnani
Martin Mattsson

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Pilot project

Air pollution is one of the most serious threats to human well-being globally and especially in urban South Asia. As air pollution levels are still rising in many cities, it is important to understand what defensive investments households can make in order to...

Digital Innovation in Ghana – Interventions Targeted at Addressing Leakage

Francis Annan
Patrick Asuming
Stefano Carattini
Justice Mensah

Ghana

Full project

Researchers will study Ghana’s Premix Fuel Program, a large conditional transfer program subsidizing premix fuel for fishermen in Ghana. Subsidized fuel is hoarded, creating artificial shortages and prices that defy the program’s spirit. Researchers will...

Efficient Generation and Grid-Evacuation from Distributed, Farmer-Owned PV Panels

Ram Fishman
Aditi Mukherjee

India

Pilot project

One of India’s flagship decarbonization programs seeks to shift millions of grid-connected irrigation pumps to run on farmer-owned photovoltaic (PV) panels, while also allowing sales of unused energy to the grid. The program has a large potential to mitigate...

Improving Residential Indoor Air Quality in Mexico City: Effects on Wellbeing and Productivity

Ludovica Gazze
Bridget Hoffmann

Mexico

Pilot project

Air pollution has significant negative effects on health and economic outcomes in urban centers of Latin America, and unequal exposure to air pollution may be exacerbating income and health inequalities. Because individuals spend most of their lives indoors...

Revitalizing Traditional Water Tanks for Climate Adaptation in India

India

Full project

Irrigation provides a possible means for farmers to adapt to climate change. In the Bundelkhand region of central India, traditional tanks were constructed centuries ago to store rainwater for irrigation later in the season or for cultivation during the dry...

Climate, Yield, and Welfare Impacts of Green Super Rice

Jauhar Ali
Jesusa Beltran
Zachary Brown
Raymond Guiteras
Roderick Rejesus
Jose Yorobe

Philippines

Pilot project

Green Super Rice has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation, but reaching its effectiveness depends on farmer behavior and the incentives they face. In this pilot study in the Philippines, researchers will develop...

Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation in Communal Forestland in Liberia

Avi Ahuja
Darin Christensen
Alexandra Hartman
Cyrus Samii

Liberia

Pilot project

Researchers will design and evaluate a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program to compensate communities in Liberia for conserving collective forestland. PES offers compensation for conserving forests, helping to mitigate climate change without depriving...

Impact of Prepaid Smart Meters on Firms in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Senegal

Abdoulaye Cisse
Ethan Ligon

Senegal

Pilot project

The majority of firms in sub-Saharan Africa are small establishments with low productivity and a short lifespan. Electricity is often cited as a key limiting factor of firm productivity growth: access to electricity and reliability of electricity are major...

Migration as Climate Change Adaptation

Beatriz Magaloni
Melanie Morten
Alice Yiqian Wang

Mexico, United States of America

Pilot project

Migration may be an important component of climate change adaptation, especially for residents of low-income countries. Individuals may migrate away as a coping mechanism in response to unforeseen and sudden environmental shocks, such as droughts, floods, or...

Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Energy Demand Flexibility in High-Emitting Countries

Jesper Akesson
Robert Metcalfe

Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America

Path-to-scale project

The objective of this project is to scale and test behavioral interventions that improve household-level demand flexibility in several high-income and high-emission countries. A secondary project objective is to reduce overall household energy demand. More...

Nationwide Provision of Air Pollution Information onto Affordable Housing Listings

Peter Bergman
Jonathan Colmer
Riddhima Mishra

United States of America

Path-to-scale project

Air pollutants, like particulate matter of diameter smaller than 2.5 μm, contribute to a range of adverse outcomes. Exposure to these harmful particulate matter is unequal: low-income families and underrepresented groups experience significantly greater...

Barriers to Public Action for Clean Air

Patrick Baylis
Teevrat Garg

India

Pilot project

Air pollution represents one of the most severe contemporary public health disasters in India. However, there remains a notable absence of public pressure on elected officials to seek policy solutions to improve air quality. In this study, researchers will...

Improving Brick Manufacturing in Bangladesh to Promote Clean Air and Better Health

Nina Brooks
Stephen Luby
Grant Miller

Bangladesh

Full project

Across South Asia, the brick manufacturing industry is dominated by inefficient, coal-burning kilns. Brick kilns are one of the largest emitters in the region. In Bangladesh, kilns contribute 17 percent of the country’s annual CO2 emissions and 11 percent of...

Air Filters and Students Learning

Michael Kremer
Mauricio Romero
Santiago Saavedra

Colombia

Full project

This project aims to evaluate whether installing air filters inside classrooms enhances student learning. Bogotá has high levels of air pollution which could negatively affect education. Installing air filters (HEPA) could potentially mitigate the harmful...

Extending Access to Electricity through Energy Efficiency Policies: Evidence from Benin's Prepaid Electricity Meter Rollout

Arnaud Dakpogan

Benin

Full project

While high upfront costs limit the adoption of electricity connections, little is known about non-price barriers to adoption. Researchers will aim to fill this gap through a partnership with the Ministry of Energy in Benin, who plans to heavily subsidize grid...

Solarizing Agriculture: Estimating the Economic Returns to Solar Irrigation Pumps in Bangladesh

Shweta Bhogale
Shefali Khanna
Mohammad Yunus

Bangladesh

Pilot project

Researchers will embed a village-level randomized evaluation into the ongoing, government-led rollout of the solar irrigation pump (SIP) program in Bangladesh to study how the adoption, usage, and maintenance of SIP technologies are affected by the type of...

Access to Renewable Energy: Micro-Finance for Small Businesses and Micro-Enterprises in Pakistan

Alexandra Avdeenko
Markus Frölich

Pakistan

Full project

South Asia’s energy crisis is increasingly characterized by rising energy demands that remain unmet by the national energy supply, contributing to frequent power outages. Rising energy costs and power cuts pose high risks for low-income entrepreneurial...

Fostering Adaptation to Climate Change Among the Poor in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Full project

Researchers will evaluate and compare two alternative strategies to foster climate change adaptation among the rural poor. In partnership with BRAC, they are studying two new versions of BRAC's flagship Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative, which have been...

Reducing Carbon Emissions While Boosting Growth: Turkey's Response to the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

David Atkin
Banu Demir Pakel

Turkey

Full project

Understanding how to design policies to effectively reduce firm-level carbon emissions while minimizing impacts on economic growth is a question of central importance in the battle to mitigate climate change. The European Union is proposing a Carbon Border...

2021

The Effect of Smart Metering on Revenue Collection, Electricity Access, and Supply in Jammu and Kashmir

India

Full project

Almost 800 million people in low- and middle-income countries are not connected to the electricity grid. Those with power are often subject to unreliable supply and frequent outages. One reason for this is that utilities are frequently unable to reliably bill...

Changing Social Norms to Expand Energy Access via Electricity Payments in Pakistan

Robin Burgess
Tim Dobermann
Michael Greenstone
Faraz Hayat
Usman Naeem

Pakistan

Pilot project

The ability of governments to expand access to energy runs aground when state capacity is limited. Unpaid bills and electricity theft can create a leaky bucket that results in energy access being curtailed, especially for those experiencing poverty. Together...

Information and Behavioral Approaches to Increase Electricity Payment and Reduce Pollution from Electricity

Husnain Ahmad
Ayesha Ali
Robyn Meeks
Zhenxuan Wang
Javed Younas

Pakistan

Full project

Increased access to affordable and high-quality electricity services is needed in many low- and middle-income countries. Raising revenue through electrical bill payments can be key to supporting this goal, and help electricity utilities meet increasing...

The Value of Forecasts

Fiona Burlig
Amir Jina
Erin Kelley
Gregory Lane

India

Full project

Climate change will dramatically alter weather patterns around the world, particularly in developing countries. Farmers in poor countries are currently unable to optimally adapt to the weather. Under climate change, yields are projected to fall substantially...

Harvesting the Rain: The Impact of Scaling-Up Rainwater Harvesting Techniques in Niger

Jenny Aker
Maigari Malam Assane
Kelsey Jack

Niger

Path-to-scale project

In situ rainwater-harvesting (RWH) techniques have the potential to increase agricultural yields in the face of low and erratic rainfall, reversing land degradation and combatting desertification. We propose to study the scale-up of an intervention that has...

Informal Transit Networks: Impacts from Public Sector Competition and Policy Options for Reform

Daniel Bjorkegren
Alice Duhaut
Geetika Nagpal
Nick Tsivanidis

Lagos, Nigeria

Full project

Transportation generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions and is a primary driver of pollution in cities. Given that billions will move into cities in the coming decades within low- and middle-income countries, a key part of the fight to reduce...

Play for the Mangroves

Jennifer Alix-Garcia
Christopher Knittel
Laura Rodriguez

Dominican Republic

Pilot project

The most important environmental issue facing the Dominican Republic (DR) today is the destruction of its coastal mangrove forests. These trees save lives by shielding villages from tropical storm damage, providing a haven for juvenile reef fish, and...

Identifying Strategies to Improve the Quality of Electricity Supply and Operations of Electricity Utilities in India

Nick Ryan

India

Pilot project

In 2019, India announced it had reached a 100 percent rate of household electrification. Now comes the hard part: providing newly connected households with reliable, high-quality power supply. Many rural areas of India have low-quality and unreliable supply...

Housing Microfinance for Climate Resilience in the Philippines

Ricardo Dahis
Teevrat Garg
Russell Toth

Philippines

Pilot project

Low-income households in the Philippines lack sufficient access to affordable and resilient housing to protect them from the physical and economic damages brought by increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as typhoons and floods. Researchers will...

Mobilizing Political Action on Climate Change

Lucy Page
Hannah Ruebeck

United States of America

Full project

Averting the worst impacts of climate change requires immediate government action in wealthy, high-emitting countries like the United States. Today, these policy changes are no longer limited by technical know-how, but rather by a lack of political will. This...

Using Contests to Deliver Cost-Effective Energy Conservation in Vietnam

Teevrat Garg
Jorge Lemus
Guillermo Marshall
Chi Ta

Vietnam

Full project

The energy sector in low- and middle-income countries is characterized by two stylized facts: first, high rates of particulate and carbon emissions per unit electricity generated, and second low electricity reliability. To reduce air pollution levels and...

Paying Smallholder Farmers to Increase Carbon Sequestration by Changing Agricultural Practices: Evidence from Odisha

Aprajit Mahajan
Sayantan Mitra
Shuo Yu

Odisha, India

Pilot project

This project seeks to incentivize smallholder farmers in rural India to adopt agricultural practices that improve carbon soil sequestration. The researchers will carry out a pilot scheme that pays farmers as a function of measured improvements in soil organic...

Impacts of Small-Scale Biogas Technology on Energy Access in Egypt

Samer Atallah
Olivier Deschênes
Ahmed Elsayed
Nico Pestel
Marc Witte

Egypt

Pilot project

Across low- and middle-income countries, cooking fuel expenditures represent a large share of households’ budgets, crowding out health and educational expenditures. Simultaneously, many rural areas lack the infrastructure to deal with agricultural waste...

Credit for Climate Change: Promoting Asset-Collateralized Loans for Water Tanks

Joshua Deutschmann
Tomoko Harigaya
Michael Kremer

Kenya

Path-to-scale project

Climate change-induced rainfall and temperature variability pose a substantial economic risk to smallholder dairy farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Rainwater harvesting tanks may help farmers adapt to climate uncertainty. Previous work, led by...

Increasing Adoption of Rooftop Solar in Bangalore

Teevrat Garg
Meera Mahadevan

India

Pilot project

India’s increasing prominence in the global economy has been accompanied by hazardous air pollution levels, in part due to the dominance of coal-based power generation. To reduce air pollution levels and increase energy production, the national government has...

Incentivizing Sustainable Solid Waste Management

Muhammad Haseeb
Namrata Kala
Mauricio Romero

Liberia

Pilot project

Open waste burning emits large quantities of black carbon and co-pollutants, contributing to climate change and impacting human health. Reliable and high-quality waste management services are sparse in many developing countries. Waste management services (WMS)...

Targeting Clean Fuels: Pricing Strategies and the Distribution of Benefits in Periurban Ghana

KP Asante
Kelsey Jack
Darby Jack
Paulina Oliva

Ghana

Full project

Globally, nearly three billion people cook with traditional stoves and fuels. These inefficient and polluting energy sources produce one-quarter of all black carbon emissions globally. Household air pollution also represents the largest energy-related health...

The Power of Agency: Evidence from a Participatory Agricultural Transformation

Xavier Gine
Aprajit Mahajan
Anup Malani
Manaswini Rao

Telangana, India

Full project

Participatory development emphasizes a bottom-up approach focusing on community control over planning and implementation decisions to improve development outcomes. We propose to assess the value of community participation in the location choice and...

Sustainable Spillovers: The Health and Environmental Impacts of Solar Energy Adoption

Lori Beaman
Joshua Deutschmann
R Subramanian
Emilia Tjernström

Nigeria

Pilot project

Rapid urbanization is straining electricity grids in many developing countries. Nigeria boasts high connectivity rates, but actual electricity access is much lower—the average electricity connection only functions a third of the time. Many households rely on...

Renewable Energy Investments: Micro-Finance Support for Small Businesses and Micro Enterprises in Pakistan

Markus Frölich

Pakistan

Pilot project

Off-grid renewable energy (RE) solutions can be an environmentally friendly, easy, and more reliable source of energy. Yet, even with access to finance under favorable conditions, few micro, small, and medium enterprises might eventually adopt the new...

Driving Greener Mobility

Robert Pickmans
Hilary Yu

Rwanda

Pilot project

Motorcycle taxis provide an important means of transportation and support economic livelihoods across Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, existing moto-taxis are largely petrol-based, with significant negative externalities for both...

Foster Adoption and Productive Use of Electricity: A Cluster Randomized Policy Roll-out in Rural Rwanda

Nathan Fiala
Lise Masselus
Anicet Munyehirwe
Jörg Peters
Maximiliane Sievert

Rwanda

Pilot project

The extension of rural electrification can help to improve the capacity of vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change through income diversification and increased productivity. In Rwanda, the Electricity Access Roll-Out Program (EARP) has been...

2020

Using Experimental Evidence to Scale Up Alternate Wetting and Drying Technology for Rice Production in Bangladesh

Kyle Emerick

Bangladesh

Path-to-scale project

The production of rice requires flooded fields with massive extraction of groundwater using electricity. Previous research has shown that a simple perforated pipe (called Alternate Wetting and Drying technology) can reduce water use in deep water table areas...

Estimating the Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Shifting Electric Vehicle Load

Fiona Burlig
James Bushnell
David Rapson

United States of America

Full project

In this project, we partner with a California electric utility to evaluate the welfare impacts of an electric vehicle (EV) load management technology. Electrified transportation is a critical component of global decarbonization plans, beyond reducing...

Transforming Brick Manufacturing in Bangladesh to Promote Clean Air and Better Health

Nina Brooks
Stephen Luby
Grant Miller

Bangladesh

Pilot project

Across South Asia, the brick manufacturing industry is dominated by inefficient, coal-burning kilns. Brick kilns are one of the largest emitters in the region. In Bangladesh, kilns contribute 17 percent of the country’s annual CO2 emissions and 11 percent of...

Market Based Schemes for Air Pollutants

India

Path-to-scale project

Researchers are collaborating with the Punjab State Pollution Control Board (PSPCB) and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to design, implement, and scale emissions markets for air pollution. The goal of these markets is to reduce the cost of...

Forest Conservation on a Budget: Redesigning Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico to Increase Cost-effectiveness

Santiago Izquierdo-Tort
Seema Jayachandran
Santiago Saavedra

Mexico

Path-to-scale project

Mexico’s national forest protection program, Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA), is one of the largest Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs worldwide, but its funding has declined sharply recently. This project aims to study whether the program’s...

Targeting Subsidies for the Poor: Electricity in Cape Town, South Africa

Kelsey Jack

City of Cape Town, South Africa

Path-to-scale project

The City of Cape Town has an ambitious climate target of net carbon neutrality by 2050. At the same time, the City distributes water and electricity to a growing population, around a quarter of which lives in poverty. The City therefore must balance equitable...

Improved Environmental Inspections in China and Their Effects

Douglas Almond
Shuang Zhang

China

Full project

China’s poor environmental performance is not for lack of issuing environmental regulations. Instead, there is a persistent gap between what the central government requires and what local governments implement (Karplus, Zhang, and Almond, 2018). In 2019-2021...

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Shipping Industry

Robert Metcalfe

United States of America

Pilot project

Shipping produces significant greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) along with other harmful pollutants that result in premature deaths and reduce ecosystem services. Based on our analysis of data with the shipping company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, we have...

Managing Climate Migration: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Pilot project

We propose a set of pilot surveys and survey experiments, to be conducted in collaboration with BRAC, to explore the pressing yet understudied area of climate migration. These surveys will study the demand for a BRAC-designed climate migration program, and...

Experimental Evaluation of a Flood Forecasting Tool

Maulik Jagnani
Rohini Pande

Bihar and Assam, India

Full project

Between 2011-20, floods caused over 45,000 deaths with most occurring in lower-income countries (Guha-Sapir, 2020). Early warning systems (EWS) for floods can lower human and economic losses and improve post-flood recovery. But, underdeveloped dissemination...

How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

Ritam Chaurey
Yunfan Gu
Gaurav Nayyar
Siddharth Sharma
Eric Verhoogen

Bangladesh

Full project

This project will conduct a randomized control trial on the determinants of adoption of an energy-efficient technology in the Bangladeshi manufacturing sector. The technology is a new motor for stitching machines, called a “servo” motor, which uses about 75%...

Piloting PROEZA

Silvio Daidone
Markus Frölich
Esther Heesemann
Martin Prowse
Jyotsna Puri
Nicholas Sitko

Paraguay

Pilot project

The government of Paraguay and FAO Paraguay will implement a large-scale conditional cash transfer program for smallholder farmers in the Eastern part of Paraguay, as part of the “Poverty, Reforestation, Energy and Climate Change Project” (PROEZA). The cash...

Piloting Models of Payment for Ecosystem Services to Prevent Deforestation in India

Sayantan Mitra

Maharashtra, India

Pilot project

Deforestation is a first-order policy concern in developing countries like India along with a lack of adequate resources among owners of forest land, causing a vicious cycle of deforestation and poverty. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) for prevention of...

Adoption and Use of Smart Plugs for Demand Side Management in India

Teevrat Garg
Greer Gosnell
Zeynep Gurguc
Ralf Martin

Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, India

Pilot project

India is plagued with the twin problems of exceedingly high levels of air pollution and low access to electricity. To address these issues, India plans to dramatically scale electricity capacity in conventional and renewable resources. To fully harness the...

Price Incentives for Resource Conservation: Experimental Evidence from Groundwater Irrigation

Nick Hagerty
Ariel Zucker

Gujarat, India

Full project

Groundwater is a vital input to agricultural production worldwide, but a widespread lack of marginal pricing or other effective regulation often leads to misallocation, overconsumption, and depletion. As precipitation and surface water supplies become scarcer...