explore 2016

2016

In order to analyze the role of energy as a factor for sustainable development in Latin America, CAF launched a call for research proposals on Energy, Environment and Development. In this opportunity, the jury decided to award four proposals out of 240 received from several countries.

The selection committee included Fernando Navajas (FIEL, UNLP y UBA), Francisco Monaldi (IESA), Fernando Tudela (CCGSS y CCAP), Osmel Manzano (BID), Ligia Castro (CAF), Mauricio Garrón (CAF), Pablo Sanguinetti (CAF) y Hamilton Moss (CAF).

Selection criteria for the proposals were policy relevance for Latin America, the novelty of the work and its methodological rigorousness.

The winning proposals were:

  • "Political foundations of electricity losses and theft: evidence from survey experiments and time-series cross-section data in Latin America", by Santiago Lopez-Cariboni. This project aims to analyze political economy aspects of electricity theft. In particular, it looks at whether distributive conflicts and government performance may induce higher tolerance toward illegal energy consumption in several Latin-American countries.
  • "Political-Economy Constraints to Clean-Energy Access for Low-Income Households", by Enrique Kawamura. This research proposal presents a dynamic model analyzing the political constraints that may prevent poverty energy alleviation through access to clean energy technologies.
  • "Dynamic Incentives to Investment in Green Energy:  A Structural Model for Competition in Wholesale Electricity Markets in Developing Countries", by Rodrigo Garcia Ayala. The proposal introduces two structural empirical dynamic models to analyze  the  decisions  of  entry,  exit  and  investment  in electricity-generation industries taking  into  account  the  regulatory framework in place in the country, the expected evolution of market determinants, and competition among firms in  the market.
  • "Studying fuel choices for residential heating and cooking in urban areas of central-southern Chile: the role of preferences, income, prices, and the availability of energy sources and technology",by Walter Gómez Bofill, Mónica Marcela Jaime Torres and Carlos Alberto Chávez Rebolledo. This proposal aims at analyzing the determinants of the choice of fuel and the intensity of fuel use for residential heating and cooking in Central and Southern Chile.

Each winning proposal will receive USD 15 thousand for its development.