Semee Yoon

Abstract Where electricity access is limited, solar lanterns are a viable and relatively inexpensive source of basic lighting for households. However, the creation of commercially viable business models for solar lanterns is difficult because the customers are poor and make decisions under tight liquidity constraints. To understand the economics of technology adoption in the case of solar lanterns, we conduct a field experiment on willingness to pay (WTP) for solar lanterns in rural Uttar Prades

Abstract Social innovation is a useful mechanism to address unmet needs in local societies and tackle wicked problems through innovative products and services. Policymakers and practitioners have increasingly become interested in effective policies and strategies for facilitating social innovation to deliver sustainable development; however, a lack of coherent analytical framework persists. To address this gap, we propose the Social Innovation System framework, by adapting the Technological Inno

Abstract Outdoor air pollution continues to be a challenging health issue, even as countries experience economic growth. By exploiting a unique transboundary setting in East Asia, we study the impact of an increase in particulate matter (PM) concentrations on fetal deaths. Due to the westerlies in the mid-latitudes, residents in South Korea at times experience intermittent exposure to high levels of air pollution. Using such atmospheric setting, we estimate a reduced-form impact of high PM event

Various studies have found that rural electrification can lead to female empowerment and promote paid work opportunities for women through increased access to, and productive usage of electricity. This study, however, reveals a more complicated story in rural China, where the socioeconomic effect of rural electrification on women remains varied, despite near-universal access to electricity. Using the 2012 China Family Panel Studies survey data, we find that while rural electrification is not ass

ABSTRACT This study investigates the gendered impact of household wealth on children's educational aspirations in China. Using two waves of longitudinal survey data of Chinese households from 2012 and 2016, we find that household assets have a differential impact on girls' and boys' educational aspirations. Household assets have a significant and positive impact on girls' aspirations for higher education, especially for graduate school, whereas boys' aspirations remain relatively stable across a

This thesis makes contributions to provide the microeconomic evidence on the effects of electricity provision and on the feasibility of electricity provision via renewable energy in developing countries. Three selected topics are presented. First, we discuss how the impact of national electricity grid provision affects household welfare and individual labor activities in Vietnam. To overcome the endogeneity problem of infrastructure provision, the slope of the terrain is used as the instrumental