IRES Faculty Milind Kandlikar has a new publication

IRES Faculty Milind Kandlikar has a new publication

Willingness to Pay for Solar Lanterns: Does the Trial Period Play a Role?

Co-Authors: Semee Yoon1, Johannes Urpelainen2 and Milind Kandlikar3

1 Graduate School of International Studies & Underwood International College, Integrated Social Sciences Division, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
2 Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, New York
3 Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability & The Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia

Abstract

Where electricity access is limited, solar lanterns are a viable and relatively inexpensive source of basic lighting for households. However, the creation of commercially viable business models for solar lanterns is difficult because the customers are poor and make decisions under tight liquidity constraints. To understand the economics of technology adoption in the case of solar lanterns, we conduct a field experiment on willingness to pay (WTP) for solar lanterns in rural Uttar Pradesh. Applying the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak method of eliciting WTP, we evaluate the ability of a trial period and postponed payment to increase sales. We find no evidence for the effectiveness of the trial period and only weak evidence for the positive effect of postponed payment. Overall, WTP for the product among the customers is low. There is no clear evidence for concerns about the uncertain quality of the product, liquidity constraints, or present-bias. In this context, policies to subsidize very small solar lanterns would not correct a market failure, as people appear to have only a limited interest in the product.

Click here to view the publication.

sunlight

Photo credit: Michael Pollak from flickr/Creative Commons.

Posted June 29, 2016.

IRES Faculty Associate Simon Donner and IRES Faculty Milind Kandlikar have a new publication

Measuring and tracking the flow of climate change adaptation aid to the developing world

Co-Authors: Simon D Donner1, Milind Kandlikar2,3 and Sophie Webber4

1 Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

2 Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

3 Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, 6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

4 Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, 1255 Bunche Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Abstract

The developed world has pledged to mobilize at least US $100 billion per year of ‘new’ and ‘additional’ funds by 2020 to help the developing world respond to climate change. Tracking this finance is particularly problematic for climate change adaptation, as there is no clear definition of what separates adaptation aid from standard development aid. Here we use a historical database of overseas development assistance projects to test the effect of different accounting assumptions on the delivery of adaptation finance to the developing countries of Oceania, using machine algorithms developed from a manual pilot study. The results show that explicit adaptation finance grew to 3%–4% of all development aid to Oceania by the 2008–2012 period, but that total adaptation finance could be as high as 37% of all aid, depending on potentially politically motivated assumptions about what counts as adaptation. There was also an uneven distribution of adaptation aid between countries facing similar challenges like Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The analysis indicates that data allowing individual projects to be weighted by their climate change relevance is needed. A robust and mandatory metadata system for all aid projects would allow multilateral aid agencies and independent third parties to perform their own analyses using different assumptions and definitions, and serve as a key check on international climate aid promises.

Click here to view the publication.

climate

Photo credit: Lisa Westerhoff

RES PhD Candidate Simon Harding and IRES Faculty Milind Kandlikar have a new publication

Taxi apps, regulation, and the market for taxi journeys

Co-Authors: Simon Hardinga, Milind Kandlikara, Sumeet Gulatib

a Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, 2202 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, Canada

b Food and Resource Economics, Land and Food Systems, MacMillan 341, 2357 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, Canada

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a starting point for discussion on how smartphone-based taxi applications (‘apps’) have changed the market for taxi journeys and the resulting implications for taxi market regulation. The paper focuses on the taxi apps and their impact on taxi markets. It provides a brief history of taxi regulation before outlining the underlying economic rationales of its current form in many parts of the world, characterised as the “QQE” framework (quantity, quality and economic controls on operators). It argues that current regulation assumes that taxi markets are subject to three sets of problems that require correction by regulatory intervention, namely: those associated with credence goods, problems related to open access and those resulting from transactions occurring in a thin market. It is then proposed that taxi apps solve both the credence good and thin market problems whilst largely mitigating the problems associated with open access. The paper then presents some potential problems for taxi apps, namely the potential for instability on supply and demand sides, collusion and monopoly. It also discusses concerns about driver background checks and safety. The paper concludes by arguing that instead of restricting the growth of the taxi market, regulators should focus on reducing the likelihood of monopoly and collusion in a taxi market led by apps.

Click here to view the publication.

taxi

Photo credit: Rob Nguyen from flickr/Creative Commons

IRES Postdoctoral Fellow Nathan Bennett co-organized an event regarding large marine protected areas

In February 2016 at an event co-organized Professor Patrick Christie from the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and Postdoctoral Fellow Nathan Bennett from UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, more than 100 participants met for the first-ever major discussion of challenges associated with how people interact with large marine protected areas (MPAs).  The event was held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Attendees representing 17 countries and 18 universities, several School of Marine and Environmental Affairs masters’ students and faculty members, staff from the world’s largest MPAs, and indigenous community leaders, collaborated to proactively identify solutions to overcoming challenges.

Click here to read more about this event.

 

fish

Photo credit: Peter Corbett from flickr/Creative Commons

IRES Faculty Mark Johnson Featured on CBC News

The CBC News website recently featured Mark Johnson.  Mark discussed how the Fraser River can be a possible future water source for Metro Vancouver in addition to our current reservoirs.

Click here to view the news article.

 

water

Photo credit: Julian S. Yates

RES PhD Student Sameer Shah Featured in UBC’s “A Quick Study”

water photo cropped

(Photo credit: wfelden from flickr/Creative Commons )

 

A Quick Study is a UBC ongoing series aimed at getting to know what motivates and inspires UBC students about their learning — inside and outside the classroom.

RES PhD student Sameer Shah is featured in UBC’s A Quick Study.  Click here to view the interview.

Sameer Shah 1

 

 

RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière’s Research in Brazil
Featured on Mitacs Blog

Below is a short description of research RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière is doing in Brazil posted on the Mitacs Blog:

https://www.mitacs.ca/en/impact/postcard-brazil-ubc-phd-student-travels-southern-amazonia-find-water-footprint-local-farms

 

For more information on Mitacs, click here.

 

Brazil Cropped

Photo credit: Michael Lathuillière

RES PhD Candidate Michael J. Lathuillière and IRES Faculty Mark S. Johnson have a new publication

A review of green- and blue-water resources and their trade-offs for future agricultural production in the Amazon Basin: what could irrigated agriculture mean for Amazonia?

Co-Authors: Michael J. Lathuillière1, Michael T. Coe2, and Mark S. Johnson1,3

1Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 2202, Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada
2Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644, USA
3Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2207, Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada

 

Abstract: The Amazon Basin is a region of global importance for the carbon and hydrological cycles, a biodiversity hotspot, and a potential centre for future economic development. The region is also a major source of water vapour recycled into continental precipitation through evapotranspiration processes. This review applies an ecohydrological approach to Amazonia’s water cycle by looking at contributions of water resources in the context of future agricultural production. At present, agriculture in the region is primarily rain-fed and relies almost exclusively on green-water resources (soil moisture regenerated by precipitation). Future agricultural development, however, will likely follow pathways that include irrigation from blue-water sources (surface water and groundwater) as insurance from variability in precipitation. In this review, we first provide an updated summary of the green–blue ecohydrological framework before describing past trends in Amazonia’s water resources within the context of land use and land cover change. We then describe green- and blue-water trade-offs in light of future agricultural production and potential irrigation to assess costs and benefits to terrestrial ecosystems, particularly land and biodiversity protection, and regional precipitation recycling. Management of green water is needed, particularly at the agricultural frontier located in the headwaters of major tributaries to the Amazon River, and home to key downstream blue-water users and ecosystem services, including domestic and industrial users, as well as aquatic ecosystems.

 

Click here to download the publication.

 

Mike Photo
Photo credit: Michael J. Lathuillière

Congratulations to our May 2016 RMES Graduates!

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Johnnie Manson – MA (Supervisors: Terre Satterfield and Hannah Wittman)

 

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Kelly Sharp – MA (Supervisors: Hisham Zerriffi and Philipe Le Billon)

 

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Yaron Cohen – MSc (Supervisor: Milind Kandlikar)

 

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Arvind Saraswat – PhD (Supervisor: Milind Kandlikar)

 

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Lisa Westerhoff – PhD (Supervisor: John Robinson)

 

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Thor Jensen – Joint PhD [UBC — UVSQ] (Supervisor: Hadi Dowlatabadi)

 

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Chloe (Pui Wing) Sher — MA (Supervisor: Karen Bakker)

 

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Matt Taccogna — MSc (Supervisor: Hisham Zerriffi)

 

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Anne-Mareike Chu — MSc (Supervisor: John Robinson)

 

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Phil Torio — PhD (Supervisor: Leila Harris)

New Grad Photo

Photo credit: Narek75/Creative Commons

Charlotte Milne

Charlotte Milne

PhD Student
Disaster Resilience Research Network Fellow
R. Howard Webster Fellow
IRES Student Society Social Coordinator, 2023-2024

Contact Details

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-milne/

cmil137[at]mail[dot]ubc[dot]ca

Bio

Charlotte’s research looks at current approaches to floodplain mapping in Canada and the potential for the process to be improved through greater consideration of Indigenous community values and perspectives. Through her work with the Living With Water research project she is also interested in how Nature-based Solutions to riverine flooding can be implemented in just ways that reflect local community priorities. Charlotte is from Aotearoa (New Zealand) where she completed her MSc in Fluvial Geomorphology before working on the Māori-led project Te Mana o Rangitāhua. Charlotte is supervised by Professor Stephanie Chang (IRES and SCARP).