Examples of Previously Funded Proposals on Environmental Policies

To examine the implications of environmental policies, SANDEE launched a special research call on environmental policies. Concept notes in this area will be accepted by SANDEE on a continuous basis throughout the year.

This call for concept notes encourages empirical research that uses economic methods to answer the following questions:
• How effective are environmental policies and regulations in meeting their goals? What are the barriers to implementation and what is the role of provincial versus national institutions in policy implementation?
• What is the distribution of economic and social costs and benefits of policies? Who would likely bear the costs or realize the gains from alternative policy approaches?
• What are the impacts of environmental policies on non-environmental sectors? What are likely impacts on innovation, technological change, employment, trade and competitiveness in both formal and informal sectors?

SANDEE has made or is in the process of making environmental policy and regulations related grants based on a similar call last year. These grants are identified and discussed below to provide new researchers with a clearer understanding of what we may be looking for.

Social and environmental impacts of pricing reforms

Governments manipulate prices of goods and services for various reasons. Price subsidies are provided to motivate technology transfer or growth, increase health or educational outcomes or as part of the support structure for the poor. In other cases, prices are manipulated to ensure revenue stabilization. Two SANDEE studies tackle the issue of pricing reform and ask what the implications maybe for poor households and for the environment.

• Do energy subsidies in Nepal target the poor?
The Government of Nepal has been subsidizing renewable energy technologies for more than two decades. There are currently some 2.5 million biogas plants in the country that have been at least partly benefited from these subsidies and a similar number of Solar Home Systems. This subsidy policy has just recently been removed but there is on-going discussion about whether it should be re-instated. Thus, this research project seeks to evaluate how effective Nepal's renewable energy subsidy policy has been in targeting poor and marginalized households and giving them access clean energy. This research will identify who has participated in the subsidy program and why adoption has been successful in some cases and not others. Evidence-based information of this nature is relevant both for poverty reduction and for any regional efforts to mitigate climate change. The study will be based mainly national household level secondary data.

• Should non-timber forest product (NTFP) pricing policy change?
The agrarian economy of tribal communities in India is well integrated with forest resources and tribal household income depends largely on the collection, use and sale of NTFPs. Since 1967, the Tribal Development Corporation in Orissa has been a monopsony buyer of NTFPs at administered prices. But these administered prices, which are revised infrequently and based on minimum wages, can be less remunerative compared to actual market prices and also lead to leakages in the market. In this context, the proposed project seeks to analyze the pricing policy of the Government of Orissa and understand its implications for tribal livelihood and state revenues. Nearly 25% of the population of Orissa is tribal and NTFPs continue to be an important component of the tribal economy. The questions asked are whether policy reforms can lead to improvements in tribal welfare while meeting the state's need for revenue generation, and what the institutional barriers are for pricing reforms. This study will be based on historical secondary data on prices, small scale surveys of tribal households and interviews with government officials.

Policies, Regulation and Environmental Compliance in Textile Industries in South Asia

The textile and garment sector is an important labor intensive industrial sector in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Pakistan, the sector provides almost 30% of the manufacturing value added and more than 40% of the manufacturing sector's employment. It has been the single largest export income earner for Sri Lanka during the last two decades and contributes to some 50% of employment in the industrial sector. In Bangladesh, the sector employs some 3 million people, 90% of whom are women. The textile industry can also be highly polluting and contributes to both water and air pollution. As part of our research portfolio related to environmental policies and regulations, we are developing a set of research studies on the textile and garment industries in these countries.

Examining voluntary adoption of environmental standards by Sri Lankan firms
This study seeks to analyze current environmental regulations in the country and assess whether they provide any incentives for firms in the textile and garment industry to adopt environmental management systems. It will also examine factors that influence firms to voluntarily adopt environmental management systems (ISO 14000). Through case studies and quantitative analyses based on firm surveys, this study seeks to understand how firms within the textile and garment sector can become more environmental friendly.

Occupational hazards and the costs of non-compliance by the textile sector in Pakistan
Cotton dust related air pollution is a significant problem associated with the textile sector in Pakistan. Thus, this study seeks to examine the health impacts on workers who are employed in this sector. It seeks to understand both the cost of illness associated with respiratory diseases among textile workers and examine the level of awareness and the effects of safety information and use of safety gadgets on health. The study will use health diaries to collect several rounds of health data from workers at factories. A second study that is still at the exploratory stage may look at the cost to the industry of complying with air and water quality standards.

Regulations, inspections and compliance with environmental standards in Bangladesh
Despite environmental regulations and stringent compliance requirements by international buyers, the textile and garments industry in Bangladesh continues to be highly polluting. Thus, this study seeks to examine how different environmental policies and regulations apply to the textile sector. It aims to identify the extent of compliance to regulations by firms and tease out reasons for non-compliance. It hopes to draw evidence from inspections undertaken by the government. The researchers currently have a study grant to explore whether data from government inspection reports are available.

Please visit www.sandeeonline.org for further details about this Special Call on Environmental Policies.