Search

In one of the largest demand-side energy efficiency programs at the time, the Mexican government supported more than 11 million, mostly low-income households in replacing their old light bulbs and appliances with more efficient models. Previous evaluations of this program focused exclusively on appliances, which made up almost 90 per cent of the total program cost, and found modest benefits in terms of energy savings. This study compares the respective effects of replacing light bulbs and appliances simultaneously in a single econometric framework, using data from nationally representative household surveys and a difference-in-differences approach which exploits geographical variation in treatment intensities. Despite using different sources and types of data, our results for the appliances replacement intervention are largely in line with the estimates of previous studies. In addition, we find that the impact on energy consumption (proxied by the amount paid for electricity) of replacing light bulbs was of comparable magnitude as that of replacing appliances, although the average cost per participating household was much smaller. Overall, our results suggest that low-cost investments that help poor households reduce their energy consumption for lighting can have high returns on energy efficiency in the residential sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cambodia has the lowest coverage of improved water and sanitation facilities in South-east Asia. Research suggests that rural Cambodians prefer a high-quality latrine over one provided for free. Market-based approaches are often used to increase sanitation coverage, but private operators lack sufficient incentives and resources to stimulate demand among households that are not immediately responsive to sales events. This study assessed the effectiveness of a Behaviour Change Communications (BCC) intervention designed to address behavioural factors that may limit uptake of latrines. The study applies a quasi-experimental matching technique to estimate the causal effect of the intervention on latrine uptake in rural areas. Communes that received both the BCC intervention and sanitation marketing were matched to similar communes where only sanitation marketing was carried out. Multivariate linear regression analysis is used to estimate the impact of the BCC intervention on latrine uptake. Results show that latrine uptake was slightly higher (0.55%) in BCC communes during the core period of the intervention, but wide variation in sales between communes made it difficult to detect a significant effect. Overall, coverage increased at a faster rate (3%) in BCC communes, but again, these results were not significant. Publicly subsidized sanitation promotion may help to reduce behavioural barriers to latrine adoption. In the absence of alternatives that address the financial constraints of households, such as toilet loans, or in situations where national policy discourages sanitation subsidies, government investment in BCC may be a worthwhile endeavour to strengthen parallel market development efforts, at least until sanitation businesses are well established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]