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We explore the effect of income inequality and peer punishment on voluntary provision of public goods in an experimental context. Our sample draws from nine fishing communities in South-Africa where high levels of inequality prevail. We find that aggregate cooperation is higher in both the voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) and punishment treatments for unequal groups. Once peer sanctioning is introduced over-contribution by low relative to high endowment players observed in the VCM treatment is significantly enhanced. Demand for punishment by low and high endowment players are similar, irrespective of differences in relative costs, and in unequal groups free-riding is punished more, specifically by low endowment players. We observe inequality aversion both in endowments and with respect to the interaction of endowments and contributions: high endowment players receive more punishment, but also receive more punishment for negative deviation from the group mean share.

We show that peer sanctioning increases cooperation in public goods experiments more in unequally endowed groups than in equally endowed groups. Punishment results in a redistribution of wealth from high to low endowment players within groups.

Bibliography: leaves 91-95., The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the trade and sustainable linkages in industry, using the South African iron and steel industry as a case study. That particular sector has been chosen because of its importance to the South African economy, and its vulnerability to trade measures. The case study outlines the economic profile of the industry, trade profiles and the structure of trade policies within the sector. International trade agreements affecting the iron and steel industry, and their structures in terms of creating incentives or disincentives for exports or imports, are discussed. An overview is presented of the environmental profile within which the sector is currently operating. The study gives consideration to environmental impacts generated within this sector as a result of its production activities, and outlines abatement measures for individual companies, as well as for government. Different public and private abatement instruments are described, and the level of South African environmental standards is compared with international standards. Scenarios are explored to assess the potential implications of 'green' trade barriers and harmonisation of environmental standards for the iron and steel industry. The last section of the document addresses the possible impacts of international trade and environmental agreements on sectoral behaviour. The impacts of regulation on the competitive advantage of the sector, employment and choice of geographical location are presented. Further, some of the main driving forces of environmental reform are explored, and the extent to which trade and sustainability issues have been addressed in terms of policy and regulations is discussed.

This research analyses the impact of a plastic bag levy, and retailer interventions focussing on promotion of reusable bags to reduce plastic bag consumption. For this purpose, tax revenue data for the fiscal years 2008 to 2020 and retail outlet data for March 2018 to February 2020 was used. A descriptive arc price elasticity was estimated from the tax revenue data, while the retail outlet data was analysed by using a panel fixed effects model to evaluate the impact of three treatments on plastic and reusable bag consumption in South Africa. Findings revealed that Treatments 1 (a monetary intervention based on giving reusable bags away for free) and 2 (a non-monetary intervention framed around a plastic free July campaign) significantly increased reusable bag uptake and reduced plastic bag consumption, while Treatment 3 (a monetary intervention involving a subsidy on reusable bags) increased reusable and plastic bag sales. The findings contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of non-monetary nudges (T2). The latter is more efficient than the monetary incentives (T1 and T3). The results also agree with the literature on the ineffectiveness of subsidies (T3) for the purpose of discouraging the consumption of plastic bags. The results confirmed that plastic bag consumption is habitual in South Africa. Based on these findings, policy recommendations were made that public campaigns and other behavioural nudges should be considered more effective in addressing the consumption of plastic bags than subsidies on reusable bags. In addition, because of the revealed low level of reuse of both plastic and reusable bags, the use of reminders to reuse bags should be considered and researched in order to modify consumer behaviour in South Africa.

Droughts induced by climate change will most likely push dryland ecosystems beyond their biophysical thresholds and lead to long-term decline in agricultural productivity. Subsistence farming in developing countries where agricultural productivity is low will become less viable for many families already ravaged by food insecurity and poverty. This dissertation examines three ways of reducing vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate variability and building resilience in the farming communities residing in semiarid lands. These include the use of adaptive seed technology, migration as a livelihood diversification and adaptive strategy, and the use of climate information in farm decision-making. The second chapter evaluates the impact of improved adaptive seed technology on market participation and food security, using data from a representative sample of 1344 households selected across six agroecological zones in Kenya. The study employed two estimation procedures for impact evaluation: a control function regression using OLS and IV regression estimated by Heckman bivariate sample selection model and 2SLS regression. The study used percentile shares approach to describe distributional inequalities in improved seed adoption across households. Kenya has a well-developed seed system, through which adaptive maize seed has been introduced for various agro-ecological zones. Despite its success with improved maize breeding programs, Kenya is still grappling with food insecurity. The marketed share of household's maize produce, among adopters, was on average 12 percentage points higher than for the control group. This increased with adoption intensity, albeit at a decreasing rate. The top 20% of households accounted for 63% of the quantity and 65% of the area planted with improved maize. The bottom 40% only accounted for 6% of the quantity purchased and 5% of the area planted with improved maize. Adopting households were less vulnerable to food insecurity and stored maize for longer than non-adopters. Larger families participated less in the market and were more food insecure. Wealth and education are other key determinants of food security and market participation. The results of the study indicate a need for a strategic policy on food security in Kenya that considers the concentrated nature of the maize farming sector, to address the problem of food insecurity. Such a policy could aim at food self-sufficiency for small farms and promote commercial production by large-scale producers for national strategic reserves. There is also a need for post-harvest policies that promote safe on-farm grain storage for small and medium scale producers. The third chapter focuses on migration, because of the growing interest among scholars in understanding the relationship between migration and adaptation to climate change. Past studies have looked at climate change as a trigger for migration, but the focus has now shifted to looking at migration as an enabler of climate-change adaptation and a livelihood diversification strategy. However, those most vulnerable to climate variability are the poor who are less able to afford mobility and entry costs. This study adds to the literature by evaluating, in chapter 3, the impact of migration on household consumption expenditure, relative food expenditure share, dietary diversity, spending on agricultural inputs and adaptive capacity. The study used survey data collected from a representative sample of 653 households across three arid regions of Northern Namibia. The study employed a novel identification strategy in migration studies by combining the standard exogenous instruments and Lewbel's constructed instruments using heteroscedastic errors. The study found two-thirds of the sampled households to be migrant-sending households. Poverty and the lack of economic opportunities in the rural villages were the main push factors driving migration to towns and cities. Although tertiary education and technical training of the migrants are key determinants of remittances received by migrant-sending households, over three quarters of the migrants were unskilled and very few having tertiary level training. Migrant-sending households had lower consumption spending and higher food budget share, suggesting relative deprivation. Although consumption spending increased with number of migrants, quality of human capital had greater impact on well-being. Migration had a positive impact on household's adaptive capacity but an inverse relationship between number of migrants and adaptation suggests failure of local adaptive strategies. The study finds households with migrants to have a significantly higher spending on agricultural inputs than those without migrants, with tractor-hire services for land preparation being a major component. The effect of family labour loss is somehow, through remittances, countervailed and compensated by mechanization. In conclusion, migration can potentially play a bigger role as an adaptive and risk-mitigation strategy in the face of climate variability, but poverty, lack of post-school skills training, and low transition to tertiary-level training are key barriers. Developing markets for credit, inputs and farm output, and preparing migrants for participation in labour markets and self-employment through training can further enhance the impact of migration and build resilience to climate shocks. Due to selfreinforcing poverty traps in poor households, the study recommends targeted public programs that support higher education and technical training. Lastly, chapter 4 examined the role of climate information and early warning in decision-making among farming communities in rural Namibia. Improved climate forecasting has been heralded as an important risk management and mitigation tool in climate-sensitive economic sectors such as agriculture. However, Africa has not reaped the benefits of improved climate forecasting and empirical studies about its impact are scanty. Chapter 4 first discusses access to and utilization of climate information in farm decisionmaking, and then evaluates its impact on dietary diversity, food spending and adaptive capacity of the households using propensity score matching, with a sensitivity analysis for hidden bias. Only half of the farmers had access to climate information and most of them relied primarily on traditional knowledge to make decisions on crop and livestock production. Many of the households without access to climate information also had little knowledge of alternative adaptive strategies. The likelihood of receiving climate information increased with the number of migrants per household, household size, social networks, trust and participation in community decision-making processes, but declined with age. Although male heads were more likely to receive climate information, females headed most of the households. The main sources of information for farmers were radios and peer learning. Respondents expressed a low level of trust in information from available channels and most of them rated the information received as insufficient for decision-making. Although 95% of households owned mobile phones, only 5% received information through them, indicating untapped opportunity of using an ICT platform to share information with farmers. Households with climate information had more diversified diets and significantly higher food spending. These households also engaged in more adaptive strategies, but the scale of adoption was small. Community empowerment through enhanced access to extension services, information on alternative adaptive choices, and the development of markets, rural communication and transport infrastructure are prerequisites to access to and effective utilization of improved climate forecast information for successful adaptation.

This paper is an investigation of the determinants of household recycling behaviour in South Africa. Waste generation around the world is growing exponentially. The proportion of South African households who recycle is very low and landfilling is the primary method of waste disposal. This is problematic because landfilling has a negative impact on the environment and human health. Therefore, alternatives to landfilling, like recycling are necessary. Thus, it is important to understand what determines recycling behaviour. A probit regression analysis was carried out using data from the 2018 General Household Survey in order to understand household recycling behaviour. The results of the regression suggest that age, race, province, urban-rural residence, the presence of a radio in the household, and owning a vehicle are significantly correlated with household recycling behaviour (p

Includes bibliographical references., This research tested whether households in Cape Town would respond to reported social norms of electricity consumption in a manner consistent with theory and earlier studies.

Includes abstract., Includes bibliographical references., This thesis presents the theme of social interaction and risk taking. There is a growing interest in incorporating the influence of social interaction in the economic modelling of human choices. Although the current economic literature is awash with the topic of social interaction a disproportionate bias is towards theoretical as opposed to empirical work. Of the existing empirical literature, a small proportion deals with sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries as case studies. This is quite surprising given that the cultural characteristic of close-knit social kinship and ties in this region makes it more likely that human choices will be influenced by social interaction. Further to this the existing empirical literature is abounds with criticism regarding the lack of sound methods to curb identification problems which include the effects of unobservables, selection bias, simultaneity and the related reflection problem. Against this backdrop the thesis makes an empirical investigation into the role of social interaction on risk taking behaviour. The thesis consists of three self-contained papers, each with the aim of unearthing the influence of social interaction on risk taking. Two types of risky behaviours apparent in SSA are investigated. The first is risky sexual behaviour associated with the HIV infection. This risk is covered in two papers that constitute chapters 2 and 3. The second type of risky behaviour relates to crimes of social behaviour, specifically contact crimes and contact related crimes, and this is covered in one paper which forms chapter 4.

Includes abstract., Includes bibliographical references., This study investigates three issues connected with governance and citizens welfare in Nigeria. One of the current debates in the political economy literature focuses on the bene ts of democracies to ordinary citizens, especially in developing countries, and particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. Most Nigerians have been questioning the bene ts of transition from military rule to democratic rule in 1999 to ordinary citizens. This concern relates to the lack of credibility of electoral processes in the country. Politicians in Nigeria have embarked on various unlawful strategies both to win and perpetuate positions of power, with no regard for the principles of free and fair elections. Non-credible elections often lead to capture of political power at both national and sub-national levels in the country by special interest groups headed by political godfathers (1). This thesis examines whether transition from an autocratic military regime to a relatively competitive democratic regime results in higher provision of public goods and a reduction in health inequality, given the prevalence of political capture due to lack of credible electoral competition in Nigeria. The thesis questions the assumption that transition from a military dictatorship to relatively competitive democratic rule will ensure an increase in the provision of public goods and a reduction in health inequality.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-52)., This paper presents an empirical analysis of the contentious issue regarding risk preferences of small-scale farmers in low-income countries. Resource-poor farmers have often been described as being inherently risk averse given their tendency to under-invest in risky yet profitable crop technologies. In contrast to this dominant view we argue that it is unlikely that these farmers have an inherent disposition towards risk aversion. We hypothesize that the observed under-investment in crop technologies is largely due to the financial constraints which these farmers face.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41)., The Overberg region in the Western Cape is an area rich in conservation value. This region has another distinctive feature in that there are three different landowners adjacent to one another, each boasting land rich in biodiversity value. In the event that the land use practices of the landowners are in conflict with biodiversity conservation on their land, there is a trade-off between net social benefit and landowner welfare. Currently, there is no explicit conservation regulation that governs the way these landowners manage the conservation value of their land. This study investigates the viability of the application of an agglomeration bonus as a voluntary incentive mechanism aimed promoting sound conservation practices at three sites managed within the region. The analysis is unique in its application of both the normal form game theory and spatial mapping approaches to the problem in a three-player context. The primary finding of this work is that in a controlled environment the application of an agglomeration bonus does result in the creation of contiguous reserves between adjacent landowners.