Essays in environmental and development economics : lead-acid battery recycling in Mexico, gender and informal labor markets in Ghana, and domestic biogas adoption in Senegal
department or school: Land and Food Systems, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Litzow, Erin Lenz
issued: 2024-07-22T21:04:46Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This dissertation presents three essays in the fields of environmental, energy, and development economics. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the effects of environmental change and associated shocks on human capital and economic outcomes. Chapter 4 documents the failure of a policy designed to address environmental degradation and its costs. Chapter 2 identifies the impact of lead (Pb) pollution on learning outcomes in Mexico. The pollution is the result of a change in the United States' environmental regulation, which caused a pollution intensive industry to shift operations to Mexico. We use a spatial difference-in-difference design to show that test scores decrease by 0.05-0.09 standard deviations in response. Effects are stronger in communities that were worse off even before the pollution increase. These results underline the importance of considering unintended consequences and cross-border spillovers when regulating toxic pollutants and highlight the need for more research on the costs of lead pollution exposure in low and middle-income countries, where most exposure occurs today. Chapter 3 considers the effects of crises, like those that can arise from global environmental change. We study how garment-making-firm owners in a Ghanaian district capital responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. All firms experienced losses during the height of lockdown policies, but female-owned firms were more likely to close. Female-owned firms that closed were already on the margin of viability, and owners of these firms lost income. Male firm owners compensated for lost income via other economic opportunities. These results show how economic shocks, which are only expected to increase as climate change accelerates, can exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities. Chapter 4 evaluates a policy aimed at slowing environmental change and mitigating its costs. It focuses on a biogas digester promotion program, targeted at energy poverty in Senegal. Using survey data collected from participatin…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/88672
note: Essays in Environmental and DevelopmentEconomics: Lead-Acid Battery Recycling inMexico, Gender and Informal Labor Markets inGhana, and Domestic Biogas Adoption in SenegalbyErin Lenz LitzowB.S.F.S., Georgetown University, 2011M.E.M., Duke University, 2017A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES(Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)July 2024© Erin Lenz Litzow, 2024The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty ofGraduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled:Essays in Environmental and Development Economics: Lead-Acid Battery Recy-cling in Mexico, Gender and Informal Labor Markets in Ghana, and DomesticBiogas Adoption in Senegalsubmitted by Erin Lenz Litzow in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food SystemsExamining Committee:Sumeet Gulati, Professor, Food and Resource Economics, UBCCo-SupervisorMunir Squires, Assistant Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, UBCCo-SupervisorBrian Copeland, Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, UBCUniversity ExaminerRashid Sumaila, Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBCUniversity ExaminerErica Myers, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of CalgaryExternal ExaminerAdditional Supervisory Committee Members:Frederik Noack, Associate Professor, Food and Resource Economics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberWerner Antweiler, Associate Professor, Sauder School of Business, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberSubhrendu Pattanayak, Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke UniversitySupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractThis dissertation presents three essays in the fields of environmental, energy, and developmenteconomics. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the effects of environmental change and associatedshocks …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0444196
language: eng
degree discipline: Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Gulati, Sumeet
contributor: Squires, Munir
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88672