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This thesis proposes the application of various economic theories and analytical techniques from the fields of energy economics, environmental economics, comparative economic systems and, development economics in the regional context of South and Central Asia. Applying IV estimation in essay one leads to the conclusion that ethnolinguistic diversity instrumented by diversity of ancient civilizations/empires is strongly linked with contemporary development in Afghanistan. Ethnolinguistic diversity induces higher levels of trust and lower levels of individualism. Moreover, it is associated with higher levels of income and lower levels of violence or crime. A robust regression discontinuity design has been used to estimate the impact of historical ethnolinguistic borders on the contemporary economic development of Afghanistan. Pashtuns have the clear advantage over the other ethnolinguistic groups in Afghanistan in terms of level of income and provision of public goods such as safe drinking water and electricity. The Pashtun belt has suffered more violence and crime due to foreign interference in the Pashtun areas. The ethnolinguistic division in Afghanistan in terms of political preferences is obvious by the fact that support for Ashraf Ghani declines significantly when crossing the ethnic and linguistic border into the non-Pashtun areas. Structural equation modeling results reveal that the empires of Achaemenids, Parthians, and, most prominently, Sasanians, categorized as Old Persian, and the empires of Turkic origin left a positive and persistent impact on the contemporary economic development of Afghanistan. Essay 2 and essay 3 of the dissertation deal with the economics of electricity and sustainable energy. Electricity generation from the use of fossil fuels is one of the largest sources of man-made carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Switching the power industry to the use of renewables such as hydro, solar, and wind energy is an option to deal with the issue of climate change. There are various challenges confronting the world and particularly South Asia in this energy transition towards renewable energy resources. Therefore, there is a necessity to take policy measures that enable electric utilities operating on fossil fuels to reach a technically efficient point where considerable savings in terms of costs and carbon emissions can be made. This has been estimated in the case of Pakistan in essay 2, with a possible reduction of about 34% of carbon emissions and 26% of the cost of power generation from fossil fuels with the use of technically efficient inputs. In essay 3, this thesis explores factors that are impediments to growth of the renewable energy sector by using pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG ARDL) and the time series autoregressive distributed lag model, as well as by using the analytical tool of SWOT methodology to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to the internal and external environment of development of the renewable energy sector in South Asia. Empirical results suggest that poor economic growth and the depreciating exchange rate are the major barriers to the development of the renewable energy sector of South Asia. SWOT analysis suggests that credit institutions’ lack of interest in financing for renewable energy projects, the poor financial situation of the distribution companies, and inadequate research in the sustainable energy sector are the main obstacles to this development.

The use of wastewater for irrigation is a common practice in the developing world. It is a major route of heavy metal contamination in vegetables. The groundwater, an alternative source for irrigation, is under threat of heavy metal contamination due to long-term use of wastewater. The present study investigated heavy metals contamination from irrigation with wastewater compared to groundwater in District Sahiwal situated in the vicinity of Lahore, Pakistan. Irrigated water, soil and vegetables were analyzed for Iron, Nickel, Lead, copper, Cadmium, Manganese and Zinc; Metal transfer factor (MTF); daily intake of metals (DIM) and health risk index (HRI) were calculated. Manganese (Mn) and Cd in wastewater irrigated soil, Pb, Cd, Mn and Fe in wastewater-irrigated vegetables and Pb, Mn and Fe in groundwater-irrigated vegetables exceeded the permissible limits (WHO, 1996), particularly in Mustard and Spinach. Generally, MTF was higher in wastewater than groundwater-irrigated vegetables, particularly with Fe followed by Ni. HRI was higher for wastewater-irrigated than groundwater-irrigated vegetables. Wastewater-irrigated Mustard and Spinach showed a HRI > 1 only for Mn. Quality control mechanisms need to be applied for long-term use of groundwater. Also, treatment of wastewater prior to application to plants must be considered to save crops from contamination.

Heavy metal contamination of agricultural soil has become a serious global problem. This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of two chromium (Cr) tolerant plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) in combination with salicylic acid (SA) on plant growth, physiological, biochemical responses and heavy metal uptake under Cr contamination. A pot experiment (autoclaved sand as growing medium) was performed using maize (Zea mays L.) as a test crop under controlled conditions. Cr toxicity significantly reduced plant growth, photosynthetic pigment, carbohydrates metabolism and increased H2O2, MDA, relative membrane permeability, proline and Cr contents in maize leaves. However, inoculation with selected PGPB (T2Cr and CrP450) and SA application either alone or in combination alleviated the Cr toxicity and promoted plant growth by decreasing Cr accumulation, H2O2 and MDA level in maize. Furthermore, dual PGPB inoculation with SA application also improved plant performance under Cr-toxicity. Results obtained from this study indicate that PGPB inoculation and SA application enhanced Cr tolerance in maize seedlings by decreasing Cr uptake from root to shoot. Additionally, combination of both PGPB and SA also reduced oxidative stress by elevating the activities of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant, also indicated by improved carbohydrate metabolism in maize plant exposed to Cr contamination. Comparatively, alleviation effects were more pronounced in PGPB inoculated plants than SA applied plants alone. The results suggest that combined use of PGPB and SA application may be exploited for improving production potential of maize in metal (Cr) contaminated soil.