Essays on Development Economics: The Anticipation of Cash Transfers and Policy Levers for Clean Energy Use

This defense will be presented in person at Bren. Join us in Bren Hall 1510 (Sycamore Room) or watch online using this link and passcode economics

ABSTRACT

This dissertation presents three chapters intersecting development, environmental, and behavioral economics. The first chapter uses a lab-in-the-field experiment in Nairobi to show that anticipating a cash transfer—without yet receiving it—reduces workers’ productivity in noncognitive tasks and worsens consumption decisions, revealing a psychological effect to income shocks that goes beyond traditional theory. The second chapter analyzes nine years of meter-level electricity data from commercial and residential accounts in central Ghana. It documents persistently low usage over time, suggesting limits to infrastructure-driven development without demand-side support, and estimates price elasticities across the consumption distribution, providing base numbers to how price policy can help promote electricity use. The third chapter tests a nonlinear pricing policy for clean cooking fuel, also in central Ghana. The results show that size-based subsidies can target poorer, more price-sensitive users and reduce public spending by 30% without sacrificing demand. Together, these studies contribute new insights on how behavioral responses and microeconomic incentives shape development outcomes.

BIO

Flavio is a Ph.D. candidate at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. His research intersects environmental, development, and behavioral economics. While at Bren, Flavio has focused on two topics: market-based incentives for clean energy adoption by households and businesses, and the psychological effects of income shocks on individuals’ economic decisions. He draws on field experiments, administrative data, and applied microeconometric methods to study these topics in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. His work aims to inform the design of cost-effective and equitable policies that advance environmental sustainability and reduce poverty in low-income settings.