Essays on Infrastructure and Development

Spending on infrastructure accounts for several percentage points of global world product, reflecting its perceived importance to growth and development. Previous literature has made limited progress in providing unbiased estimates of its impacts, or causal evidence about policy changes that can alter this impact. Primarily, this is because of the selection problem: locations in which infrastructure is built differ from those in which it is not built. This dissertation provides evidence towards three important questions related to infrastructure and development. First, what role does manmade transport infrastructure play in determining and maintaining patterns of economic geography? Second, to what degree does the relocation of economic activity in response to changes in the transport infrastructure network affect estimates of the economic impact of those changes? Third, what is the effect of involving beneficiary communities in decision-making on projects to improve local infrastructure? To address the selection problem, Chapters 2 and 3 exploit quasi-experimental variation in distance to a land transport route created by the opening and location of bridges over major rivers in the historical United States, using a new dataset containing every bridge built over the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Chapter 4 presents evidence from a randomized experiment in Bangladesh

Pathways from research to sustainable development: insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience

Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowledge application; (ii) scaling up knowledge in time when research projects are short-term and potential impacts are long-term; and (iii) scaling up knowledge across space, from local research sites to larger-scale or even global impact. Some potential pathways for funding agencies to overcome these challenges include providing targeted prolonged funding for dissemination and outreach, and facilitating collaboration and coordination across different sites, research teams, and partner organizations. By systematically documenting these challenges, we hope to pave the way for further innovations in the research cycle

Characterization and reactivity of soot from fast pyrolysis of lignocellulosic compounds and monolignols

peer-reviewedThis study presents the effect of lignocellulosic compounds and monolignols on the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot generated at 1250  ° C in a drop tube furnace. The structure of soot was characterized by electron microscopy techniques, Raman spectroscopy and electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The CO2 reactivity of soot was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Soot from cellulose was more reactive than soot produced from extractives, lignin and monolignols. Soot reactivity was correlated with the separation distances between adjacent graphene layers, as measured using transmission electron microscopy. Particle size, free radical concentration, differences in a degree of curvature and multi-core structures influenced the soot reactivity less than the interlayer separation distances. Soot yield was correlated with the lignin content of the feedstock. The selection of the extraction solvent had a strong influence on the soot reactivity. The Soxhlet extraction of softwood and wheat straw lignin soot using methanol decreased the soot reactivity, whereas acetone extraction had only a modest effect

An ‘engineer-client’ framework for community participation in infrastructure development projects

QC 20200918</p

Access to safe drinking water: experimental evidence from new water sources in Bangladesh

Stata do files and ready-for-analysis data used in the analysis published in the Final Report to 3ie on the project, "Access to safe drinking water: experimental evidence from new water sources in Bangladesh" (project code DPW1.1006). This project was funded as part of the Development Priority Window

Transparency, governance, and water and sanitation : Experimental evidence from schools in rural Bangladesh

Can transparency interventions improve WASH service provision? We use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impacts of a transparency intervention, a deliberative multi-stakeholder workshop initiated with a community scorecard exercise, in schools in rural Bangladesh. To measure impacts, we combine survey data, direct observations, and administrative data. The intervention leads to moderate but consistent improvements in knowledge of WASH standards and practices, and institutions for WASH service management, but does not improve school WASH service provision or change WASH facility use patterns. Drawing on rich descriptive data, we suggest several reasons why the intervention we evaluate did not improve WASH service outcomes and propose ways to improve the design of future interventions

Do Community Water Sources Provide Safe Drinking Water? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Rural Bangladesh

QC 20220209</p

Effects of Lignocellulosic Compounds on the Yield, Nanostructure and Reactivity of Soot from Fast Pyrolysis at High Temperatures

Gasification offers the utilization of biomass to a wide variety of applications such as heat, electricity, chemicals and transport fuels in an efficient and sustainable manner. High soot yields in the high-temperature entrained flow gasification lead to intensive gas cleaning and can cause a possible plant shut down. The reduction of soot formation increases the overall production system efficiency and improves the economic feasibility and reliability of the gasification plant. The aim of this work is to present the effect of lignocellulosic compoundson the yield, nanostructure and reactivity of soot. Soot was produced from holocelluloses, extractives, two types of organosolv lignin (softwood and wheat straw), and lignin-derived compounds (syringol, guaiacol, p-hydroxyphenol)at temperature of 1250°Cand residence time of 0.17 sand 0.35 sin a drop tube furnace.Soxhlet extraction was performed on soot samples from pyrolysis of both lignin samplesusing acetone and methanol as a solvent.The structure of solid residues was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The reactivity of soot inO2oxidation and CO2gasificationwas investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The present results indicated that soot yields from pyrolysis of ligninfrom softwood and extractives at 1250°C with the residence time of 0.17 swere similaras shown in Figure 1. The highest soot yield was obtained from pyrolysis of wheat straw lignin and quantitatively comparable with the soot yield of hydroquinone. The presence of hydroxyl groups compared to other lignin-derived compounds representing S-and G-lignin types might enhance the soot formation.Lower soot yields were obtained from pyrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulosedue to the lower presence of inherent aromatic rings [1-3].Moreover, the soot yields from pyrolysis of potassium impregnated lignin at 1250°C with the residence time of 0.35 swere significantly lower than that of non-treated lignin samples indicating the catalytic influence of potassium inhibitinggrowth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, confirming the previous results of Umeki et al. [4