We study the relationship between culture and environmental conservation through the lens of deforestation. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2001-2021, we show that changes of national leaders affect deforestation in a way that depends on the environmental culture of their ethnic group’s. Our results suggest that culture is an important lever for environmental conservation...

In this study, we empirically estimate the impact of quality regulation based on economic incentives on the frequency and duration of power outages. Our results show that on average, private firms had a better quality performance, but the worst performing firms in the region were also private. Our results advocate for more quality regulation.

Agglomeration bonuses (ABs) are payments conditional on the contiguity of landowners’ conservation areas. It is widely accepted that, by encouraging landowners to cooperate, ABs promote more cost-effective biodiversity conservation than instruments targeting landowners individually. This article challenges this conclusion by studying the impacts of different AB designs, some of which explicitly aim to enhance...

We analyze the impact of agricultural productivity growth on tropical deforestation. Our dynamic model of forest-to-farmland, addressing the Jevons’ paradox and Borlaug hypothesis, predicts that rising agricultural productivity, reflected by declining fertilizer price growth, has an ambiguous effect on deforestation. Using tropical forest loss data (2000-2022) and fertilizer price variations, we find a negative...

Understanding the mechanisms of deforestation is necessary in order to slow or arrest its progress. To accomplish this requires rigorously estimating the demand for deforestation. We contribute to this endeavor by estimating the effect of crop prices on the demand for conversion of land from forest to agriculture in the tropics during the 21st...

This paper analyzes the optimal reward scheme in an organization involving agents with social preferences whose tasks are complementary.

This article studies the exploitation of recyclable exhaustible resources such as metals that are crucial for the energy transition or phosphorus that is crucial for agricultural production. We use a standard Hotelling model of resource exploitation that includes a primary sector and a recycling sector.

The event will address the crucial intersection between global energy transition and development, with a specific focus on exploring effective policy instruments.