Essays in rural energy, forest dependency and covariates of fuel saving technologies in Ethiopia

This thesis contains empirical findings on rural energy, forest resource use and fuel saving technologies in Ethiopia. Using a household survey data conducted in different parts of the country, efforts were made to contribute to the limited empirical evidences in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. The thesis has four empirical chapters and the first and the last chapters of the thesis are the introduction and summary, respectively. The main findings and policy implications are highlighted below. The second chapter examines the coping mechanisms of rural households to fuel wood scarcity. Using randomly selected households, the results of the empirical analysis show that rural households residing in forest degraded areas respond to fuel wood shortages by increasing their labor input to fuel wood collection. The study also finds that there is no evidence for the substitution between fuel wood and dung or fuel wood and crop residues. Supply side strategies alone may not be effective in addressing the problem of forest degradation and biodiversity losses. Any policy on natural resource management in general and rural energy problems in particular should make a distinction between regions of different forest degradation level. The third chapter examines the relationship between property rights and household demand for fuel wood, as measured by the source from which fuel wood is collected. Results from the discrete choice model indicate that active local-level institutions reduce the dependency on community forests, but, otherwise, increase household dependency on open access forests. However, land tenure security and local level institutions do not increase demand for fuel wood collected from private forests. The results suggest that there is a need to bring more open access forests under the management of the community and increase the quality of community forestry management in order to realize improvements in forest conservation. The fourth chapter of this thesis deals with finding empirical evidence on the role of local level institutions and property right regimes on forest dependency using data from a random sample of rural households in Ethiopia. We find that forest dependency is negatively correlated to the wealth status of the household. Our estimation results suggest that local level institutions are not significant factors in determining use of non wood forest products unlike major forest products such as timber or woody materials in general. We also find that there is a need to expand the current practice of participatory forest management to other open access forest areas. We conclude that generalization on the forest-poverty link depends on the type of forest management and the specific characteristics that prevail in the area. The last chapter of the thesis deals with finding empirical evidence on the determinants of adoption of different types of fuel saving technologies in urban Ethiopia. The duration analysis suggests that adoption rates have been increasing over time, that income and wealth are important contributors to adoption, and that substitute technologies tend to hinder adoption of Lakech charcoal stove. However, it was not possible to consider prices or perceptions related to either the technologies or biomass availability in the duration models, and, therefore, further research is needed in order to further inform policy with respect to household technology adoption decisions.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Economicsunrestricte

Clean fuel-saving technology adoption in urban Ethiopia

The heavy dependence and inefficient utilization of biomass resources have contributed to the depletion of forest resources in Ethiopia, while the use of traditional cooking technology has also been linked to indoor air pollution and poor health. In response, the government and other institutions have pushed for the adoption of new cooking technologies, with limited success. This research examines the reasons underpinning the lack of widespread adoption, via duration analysis, correlating the speed of adoption of Mirte and Lakech cook stoves – two examples of new cooking technologies – in urban Ethiopia to socioeconomic factors. According to the duration analysis, adoption rates have steadily increased over time, while economic factors, such as product price, household income and household wealth, are, for the most part, important determinants of adoption behavior. There is also evidence that the availability of substitute technologies tends to hinder adoption, and that there are large regional differences in adoption rates, suggesting the need for a more detailed regional analysis of adoption decisions.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enecohb201

Property rights, institutions and choice of fuelwood source in rural Ethiopia

This study examines the relationship between property rights, defined by land tenure security and the strength of local-level institutions, and household's preferences for fuelwood source. A multinomial regression model applied to survey data collected in rural Ethiopia underpins the analysis. Results from the discrete choice model indicate that active local-level institutions increase household dependency on open access forests, while land security reduces open access forest dependence. However, local level institutions are found to reduce the role of private fuelwood, while tenure security has not, at least yet, had any impact on private fuelwood collection activities. The results suggest that there is a need to bring more open access forests under the management of the community and increase the quality of community forestry management in order to realize improvements in forest conservation.Economic Research Southern Africahttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpolhb201

"Ripple" effects in South African house prices

This paper analyses the ‘ripple’ effect of house prices in large-, medium- and smallsized houses of five major metropolitan areas of South Africa—namely, Cape Town, Durban Unicity, Greater Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage and Pretoria— based on available quarterly data covering the period of 1966:Q1 to 2010:Q1. Following the extant literature, the issue is contextualised as a unit root problem, with one expecting the ratios of metropolitan house price to national house price to exhibit stationarity to an underlying trend value, if there is diffusion in house prices. Using Bayesian and non-linear unit root tests, besides the standard linear tests of stationarity with and without structural break, overwhelming support is found for the existence of robust ripple effects. Also factor analysis conducted suggested that ripple effects originate in Cape Town for the large housing segment and in Durban for the medium- and small-sized houses.http://usj.sagepub.com/hb201

Property Rights and Choice of Fuel Wood Sources in Rural Ethiopia

This study tries to examine the determinants of the choice of fuel wood sources in rural Ethiopia. Survey data collected from a sample of rural households in the East Gojam and South Wollo zones of the Amhara region of the country were used for the analysis. A multinomial probit model that allows correlation between the residuals has been employed to address the question of whether household’s socioeconomic, environment and institutional variables affect the choice of fuel wood source in rural Ethiopia. The result of the analysis shows that household characteristics such as age and education level of the household head are important determinants in the choice of fuel wood sources. The surprising result from this study is that local level institutions, tenure insecurity and possession of land certificate are all found to be insignificant. Finally, our findings suggests that there are some kind of substitution possibilities between fuel wood from forest and other sources (private and market) as indicated by the positive and significant impact of distance to the forest on the probability of fuel wood collection from private or market sources

Determinants of off-farm participation decision of farm households in Ethiopia

This study analyses the determinants of off-farm work participation decisions of farm households in Ethiopia. A bivariate probit model is applied to account for the simultaneity of participation decisions of both male and female members of farm households. The results of the analysis show that human capital variables such as health and training on non-farm activities have a positive effect on the off-farm participation decisions of male members of farm households. The education status of the head has no significant impact on the participation decisions of the members of the family as most of the off-farm activities do not require formal education. The availability of credit and transfer income is the other factors that have a positive impact on the decisions of male members to participate in off-farm activities. The effects of family and farm characteristics are also analysed. Finally, policies that aim to increase the off-farm work participation decisions of family members should take into consideration the difference in responses to the various factors that affect the off-farm work decisions of male and female members of farm households

Property Rights and Choice of Fuel Wood Sources in Rural Ethiopia

Replaced with revised version of paper 12/14/10.property rights, institutions, fuel wood, rural, Ethiopia., Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,