PhD Thesis
PhD Thesis
My doctoral dissertation analyzes access problems to basic services like water and energy in developing countries. The objective of the thesis is to show how to improve access to water services and clean energies in rural communities of developing countries. In this regard, this tesis is composed by three papers. Two focused on analyzing the water sector in developing countries and one paper focused on analyzing the implementation of a program aimed to ease the substitution of wood by LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) as a cooking fuel.
In the first paper, The regulation of water provision in developing countries: coverage quality and prices, I develop a theoretical model aimed to analyze the optimal product line of a regulated utility facing competition from water vendors. The existence of water vendors forces the utility to release standpipes increasing the population with access to the service but reduces coverage. Regulation can mitigate this situation. In addition universal service policies for standpipes or the delegation of standpipes´ management to a different firm can reduce the coverage of the utility. Also, regulation can mitigate this situations. The main contributions of this paper are the analysis of a theoretical model supposing that the water utility can use two technologies to provide water and faces competition from water resellers. In this regard analyzed how the utility uses coverage, prices and quality to increase its profits.
In the second paper, Community managed water systems: the case of Peru, I make a descriptive analysis of communal organizations providing water services in rural areas of Peru. In addition, I analyze empirically which are the determinants of their presence in Peru. I show that JASS (Juntas Administradoras de Servicios de Saneamiento) are an efficient mechanism to provide water services in rural areas, but they need support. My result show that homogeneous communities, in terms of maintaining the Minka tradition of the Inca Empire and also in linguistic terms, are more prone to create JASS. The main contribution of the second paper has been the analysis of JASS. As far as I know this is the first paper doing so. It is interesting to remark that municipalities lower than 2.000 population have to be served by JASS, but not all municipalities have created JASS. So, it is of interest to analyze the determinants for the creation of JASS in Peru. This paper was published in 2017 at Journal of Environment and Development.
In the third paper, LPG cook stoves in Peru: evaluation of the FISE program, I analyse the implementation of the FISE (Fondo de Inclusión Social Energético) program in Peru. I also analyze empirically its performance in terms of use of LPG stoves and its health benefits associated. In this sense, I show that discount vouchers are an efficient policy to increase the use of LPG, avoiding cross-subsidies, to increase the use of LPG stoves but this policy alone cannot reduce respiratory problems among beneficiaries. On the other hand, this policy reduces diarrhoeal problems. I analyzed a policy aimed to increase the use of LPG as fuel for cooking purposes via offering discount vouchers for low income households. As far as I know this is an innovative policy in Latin American countries. In the paper, I have analyzed the implementation of the program, the problems faced during its implementation and also I analyzed empirically its performance. This paper was published in 2018 at Energy Policy.