Climate Change and Sustainable Development

This paper argues that in the future the primary focus of policy research and global agreements should be the de-carbonization of economic development. Consequently, instead of treating climate stabilization and economic development as separate and equal, the strategy should be to re-integrate the two global policy goals, in part by separating responsibility (and funding) from action. This will require an approach that goes beyond Kyoto. The paper invokes the example of the Manhattan Project to argue for a massive, globally funded public investment program for the deployment of renewable energy technologies in developing countries.carbon emissions, climate change, sustainable development, international cooperation, mitigation, adaptation

Prediction of Waterflooding Performance in Non-Communicating Layered Reservoir

The lack of sufficient natural drive in most reservoirs has led to the practice of supplementing the natural reservoir energy by introducing some form of artificial drive, the most basic method being the injection of gas or water. One of the objectives of waterflooding is to displace oil from reservoir. The purpose of the project is to study the performance of the waterflooding on noncommunicating layered reservoir. Analytical works based on Buckley-Leverett Method has been used and an enhance method for predicting waterflooding performance has been implemented. With different cases on mobility ratio, waterflooding performance such as oil and water production is varied as the viscosity of the displacing fluid helps in recovering the oil

Care provision: An experimental investigation

In many principal-agent settings, the effort provided by the agent benefits a third party. In these settings, the quality of the work is determined, at least in part, by pro-social motivations. We present lab experiments that utilize a new three-player trust game to examine one such setting, care provision. Players include a principal, an agent, and a needy recipient. The principal can transfer resources to an agent, who then can transfer resources to the needy recipient; the latter transfers are tripled. As in the two-player version, we find high, but variable, levels of trust and reciprocity (agent transfers to target) in the baseline game. Two treatments allow us to gauge the impact of potential policy interventions to enhance care of the target recipient. The first provides a budget subsidy to the principle, and the second alters the effectiveness (multiplier) of the agent’s transfers. Results show that the behavior of the agent does not vary by treatment, and is determined primarily by the amount received from the principal. Principals, on the other hand, do respond to the policy changes. While budget subsidies increase the expenditure of the principal only slightly, policies impacting the agent’s efficiency increase the amount entrusted to them by principals and significantly impact the well-being of the recipient. Results suggest that policies that increase the effectiveness of care workers (the agents) may significantly impact the quality of work provided. Examples of such policies include increased worker training and reductions in red tape

Prediction of Waterflooding Performance in Non-Communicating Layered Reservoir

The lack of sufficient natural drive in most reservoirs has led to the practice of supplementing the natural reservoir energy by introducing some form of artificial drive, the most basic method being the injection of gas or water. One of the objectives of waterflooding is to displace oil from reservoir. The purpose of the project is to study the performance of the waterflooding on noncommunicating layered reservoir. Analytical works based on Buckley-Leverett Method has been used and an enhance method for predicting waterflooding performance has been implemented. With different cases on mobility ratio, waterflooding performance such as oil and water production is varied as the viscosity of the displacing fluid helps in recovering the oil

The use of video vignettes to measure health worker knowledge. Evidence from Burkina Faso

The quality of care is a crucial determinant of good health outcomes, but is difficult to measure. Survey vignettes are a standard approach to measuring medical knowledge among health care providers. Given that written vignettes or knowledge tests may be too removed from clinical practice, particularly where “learning by doing” may be an important form of training, we developed a new type of provider vignette. It uses videos presenting a patient visiting the clinic with maternal/early childhood symptoms. We tested these video vignettes with current and future (students) health professionals in Burkina Faso. Participants indicated that the cases used were interesting, understandable and common. Their performance was consistent with expectations. Participants with greater training (medical doctors vs. nurses and midwives) and experience (health professionals vs. students) performed better. The video vignettes can easily be embedded in computers, tablets and smart phones; they are a convenient tool to measure provider knowledge; and they are cost-effective instruction and testing tools

Biased Policy Professionals

Although the decisions of policy professionals are often more consequential than those of individuals in their private capacity, there is a dearth of studies on the biases of policy professionals: those who prepare and implement policy on behalf of elected politicians. Experiments conducted on a novel subject pool of development policy professionals (public servants of the World Bank and the Department for International Development in the UK) show that policy professionals are indeed subject to decision making traps, including the effects of framing outcomes as losses or gains, and most strikingly, confirmation bias driven by ideological predisposition, despite having an explicit mission to promote evidence-informed and impartial decision making. These findings should worry policy professionals and their principals in governments and large organizations, as well as citizens themselves. A further experiment, in which policy professionals engage in discussion, shows that deliberation may be able to mitigate the effects of some of these biases

Making the great transformation, November 13, 14, and 15, 2003

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This Conference took place during November 13, 14, and 15, 2003. Co-organized by Cutler Cleveland and Adil Najam.The conference discussants and participants analyze why transitions happen, and why they matter. Transitions are those wide-ranging changes in human organization and well being that can be convincingly attributed to a concerted set of choices that make the world that was significantly and recognizably different from the world that becomes. Transition scholars argue that that history does not just stumble along a pre-determined path, but that human ingenuity and entrepreneurship have the ability to fundamentally alter its direction. However, our ability to ‘will’ such transitions remains in doubt. These doubts cannot be removed until we have a better understanding of how transitions work

Higher Education Capacity Building in Water Resources Engineering and Management to Support Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for Water in Pakistan

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a multi‐pronged approach, with a key element being the development of a trained Community of Practice to sustain the advances in the relevant sectors. The engagement of higher education as a catalyst in the development and capacity building of the next generation of professionals and citizens comprising the Community of Practice is essential to meet the challenges of poverty, climate change, and clean water and to sustain those advances past 2030. This paper describes a capacity building program funded by the United States Agency for International Development to partner the University of Utah, in the United States, with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, in Pakistan, to create the U.S.‐Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCASW). The USPCASW program includes six core components of Curriculum Reform, Applied Research, Exchanges and Training, Governance, Gender Equity, and Sustainability. This paper describes the project, the activities for each component, and the multi‐level assessment of the program, activities, and impact. The paper also highlights the overarching impact of the program and its alignment with achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for Water. Following the description of the program components and assessment, the paper concludes with a discussion of challenges and lessons learned

Cracking down on bribery

Do crackdowns on bribery impact corrupt behavior in the long run? In this paper we observe the long-run impact of a short-term punishment institution (i.e., a crackdown) on bribery behavior in a lab setting. We conduct lab experiments in two countries with cultures that differ in corruption norms, and which experience very different levels of bribery: the US and Pakistan. Bribery is implemented in the laboratory as a repeated three-player sequential game, consisting of a firm, a government official and a citizen. The design contains three phases: pre-crackdown, crackdown, and post-crackdown. Results show that post-crackdown behavior is not significantly different from pre-crackdown behavior in either country. We conclude that short-term crackdowns may impact behavior in the short run, depending on the strength of the existing corruption norms in the country. More importantly, in our setting crackdowns are completely ineffective in the long run, as corrupt behavior rebounds to pre-crackdown levels

Assessment of a Peer Mentoring Program to Build Capacity for Course Development and Delivery

Building capacity in higher education in under-developed countries is critical for meeting many of the local development objectives. There have been numerous approaches to improve the abilities of professors to develop and deliver courses. Structured independent learning using published resources (e.g., books, online), workshops, seminars, and mentoring are among the most common. This paper describes a peer mentoring program to build capacity of professors in Pakistan teaching water resources and environmental engineering courses. The program is delivered remotely using an online learning management system, Canvas. The peer mentoring is conducted at weekly intervals with the structured learning facilitated through Canvas. Structured instruments guide mentor review and feedback on the creation of syllabus, lesson plans, learning activities, and assessments. The program has been delivered each semester since Fall 2015. This paper will present an assessment of the impact of the program on course development and delivery. Student evaluations, mentor reflections, and instructor reflections from 2.5 years of the program are analyzed to identify effective and ineffective program elements. Ideas for evolving the program to an autonomous course development and delivery mentoring available online were compiled and used to transition the program to one being made available through the Internet