OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Visser, Martine"

Browsing by Author "Visser, Martine"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 44

Open Access
A pluralistic, socio-ecological approach to understand the long-term impact of mountain conservation: a counterfactual and place-based assessment of social, ecological and hydrological change in the Groot Winterhoek Mountains of the Cape Floristic Region
(2018) Holden, Petra Brigitte; Hoffman, Timm; Eckardt, Frank; New, Mark; Smit, Julian; Visser, Martine; Ziervogel, Gina
The problem: For protected areas to remain relevant, we need to understand their impact on a wide set of conservation objectives and environmental outcomes. We also need to evaluate how this influence relates to the socio-ecological environment within which they occur. This is a complex endeavour requiring a pluralistic approach, which draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary fields. Research question: This thesis addresses the following question: What effects do mountain protected areas have on ecosystem services over time and how does this influence relate to broader socio-economic and ecological drivers of landscape change? Aim and objectives: I use a pluralistic, socio-ecological framing to assess the impact of ~40 years of mountain protection, drawing on comparisons of ~30 and ~40 years before and after protection respectively, with an adjacent area of similar terrain informing scenarios of counterfactual conditions. I also investigate what types of values (economic and intrinsic) are important when determining the impact of mountain protected areas. Thesis approach and methods: I operationalise the concepts of socio-ecological systems, ecosystem services, land use transitions and counterfactuals to investigate socio-ecological change and how it relates to protected area impact in the Groot Winterhoek, a mountain catchment in the south-western Cape of South Africa. This mountain catchment is important for regional water supplies for agricultural and domestic uses and falls in the Cape Floristic Region, a global biodiversity hotspot. It is comprised of privately owned mountain wildlands and a wilderness-protected area, known as the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area, established in 1978 (gazetted in 1985) which forms part of the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage Site. I combine methods from social science, ecology, environmental geography, geomatics and hydrology to understand the history of land use and cover (land use/cover) and associated ecosystem service trade-offs, how they are perceived by landowners as well as their wider impact on the region. Specifically, I assess the impact of protection on land use/cover, vegetation, fire and water flows over the last ~50 years, by comparing and contextualising results of change within the protected area to alternative scenarios of “no protection” (the counterfactual conditions). Vegetation and land use/cover change inside the protected area were determined respectively using 72 repeat terrestrial photographs and vegetation surveys, and an analysis of orthorectified aerial imagery. Methods used to construct the counterfactual scenarios of mechanisms (e.g. changes in land use/cover) that would likely drive vegetation changes inside the protected area included: i) 60 repeat surveys and in-depth interviews with landowners adjacent or proximal to the protected area owning unprotected land of similar terrain to the protected area; and ii) land use/cover change analysis of orthorectified aerial imagery of adjacent unprotected land of similar terrain before and after protected area establishment. 4 This latter information was used to understand the role of the protected area in driving vegetation changes inside the protected area. Social, biophysical and remote sensing results were directly used to parameterise land use/cover components of a hydrological model to determine the influence of protection on water flows. Specifically, water flows were simulated for the current state of the environment inside the protected area as well as for several counterfactual scenarios i.e. the alternative land use/cover scenarios of “no protection”. These counterfactual scenarios included land use/cover at two-time steps of ~30 and ~8 years before protection and one-time step ~40 years after protection both inside and outside the protected area. Results: Long-term change in ecosystem service use outside the protected area on privately owned land of similar terrain to inside the protected area (Section 3): Over the last ~50 years, outside the protected area, there was a shift from livestock-based, subsistence agriculture and small-scale farming to a diversified set of ecosystem service uses. The combined area of grazing and wildflower harvesting declined by 39%, while the number of landowners using the mountains for personal nature-based recreation and ecotourism increased by 61% and 23% respectively. Agriculture intensified in suitable areas of mountain land with the number of landowners cultivating land increasing by 20%. Exogenous socioeconomic drivers associated with globalisation and economic growth were important causal mechanisms of land use change. Landowners valued mountain protection for intrinsic and non-use reasons (73-80% of landowners), including existence, bequest and option values, as well as for the indirect use of water supply (72% of landowners) in comparison with direct use reasons such as spiritual/cultural experiences and nature-based recreation inside the protected area (18 and 50% of landowners respectively). Personal, nature-based recreation outside the wilderness-protected area was associated with valuing the protection of mountain land for intrinsic and non-use reasons. Long-term vegetation change inside the protected area and plausible mechanisms driving vegetation change (Section 4): Inside the mountain protected area, fynbos vegetation cover increased on average between 11 and 30% and there were significant declines in bare ground and rock cover. In 5 accumulation and fire intensities. However, these latter changes in land use/cover also occurred outside the protected area (see results summarised for Section 3 above and Section 4 below) and therefore cannot be attributed to protected area establishment. Land use/cover and the influence on water flows inside the protected area compared to counterfactual scenarios of no protection (Section 5): Declines in grazing and changes to the fire regimes occurred regardless of the protected area boundaries. In the past, there was a high frequency of small, low intensity fires across the landscape, both inside and outside the protected area. More recently, fires have been actively suppressed and this resultsin the build-up of biomass and the development of extensive, high intensity fires which, under suitable conditions, burn large expanses of the mountain catchment. Hydrological modelling showed that a high intensity burning regime negatively affected streamflow regardless of protected area boundaries. Streamflow increased by more than 80% under high flow conditions and decreased by more than 40% under low flow conditions relative to an unburnt ‘natural’ scenario. Over the last 50 years there has also been a substantial increase in dams, buildings and roads and minor increases in cultivation outside the protected area. This has been avoided inside the protected area where these land use/cover classes declined. If the increase in these land use/cover types observed outside the protected area occurred inside the protected area this would have resulted in reductions in daily streamflow leaving the protected portion of the catchment. For example, outside the protected area reductions of 8% to 25% of streamflow were observed during mid and low flow conditions respectively, particularly during dry years, in comparison to a ‘natural’ scenario. In contrast, inside the protected area streamflow recovered from past conditions to more closely resemble the natural flow conditions of the catchment. Therefore, had the protected area not been established there would have been losses in streamflow from the catchment as well as an increase in the degree of fragmentation within this mountain area. However, with increased water storage and fragmentation outside the protected area has also come increased socio-economic opportunities such as employment and local opportunities for ecotourism and sustainable agriculture e.g. indigenous cut flows. This highlights the importance of maintaining various forms of land management systems (multifunctional landscapes) within mountain ecosystems but also the need to understand the sustainability of different land management system types. Determining appropriate land management systems for mountain areas should be based on a full understanding of the impacts on ecosystem service benefits and costs at local and regional levels between social groups both spatially and temporally. Broader significance: This thesis contributes to the conservation literature on two main fronts. Firstly, it contributes conceptually and theoretically to understanding the dynamics of ecosystem services in relation to mountain protection. Secondly, it contributes methodologically by using an inclusive, trans- and interdisciplinary research approach for evidence-based conservation at a place-based and landscape level. The study provides a case 6 study example of the positive impact that mountain protection has on water-related ecosystem services, notably by maintaining streamflow throughout high to low flow periods and during dry years. It also provides clear evidence that ecosystem service trade-offs do not remain constant over time and shows that intrinsic and non-use values are required when describing the importance of mountain protected areas. In terms of understanding the impact that protected areas have in mountain regions, the research shows that complex processes are at play that extend beyond the boundaries of a specific protected area in both time and space. Interactions between global and local drivers were found to be prominent causal mechanisms of socio-ecological change and ultimately determined the influence of mountain-protection on land use/cover, fire, vegetation and water-related ecosystem services. The thesis emphasises that counterfactual framings are necessary to understand and attribute the impacts of protected areas on environmental outcomes, however pluralism and socio-ecological approaches are critical to determine plausible counterfactual conditions. This thesis focused only on landowners adjacent and proximal to the protected area owning the majority of mountain catchment land of similar terrain. It is likely that multiple socioeconomic trade-offs have occurred between different social groups and generations at both local and regional levels. Understanding how the disadvantages and benefits of the impacts of protected areas are apportioned across the landscape and temporally is an aspect that requires future research. Central to this would be to fully consider how human well-being is influenced both upstream and downstream, including at regional levels, and between social groups and across generations. Considering the impact of protected areas on the full range of ecosystem services and linking this to societal preferences and perceptions should be incorporated into the overall goal of developing an evidence base for conservation. This is because it is both scientific evidence and societal change that can determine protected area persistence and thus long-term protected area impact.
Metadata only
Abalone conservation in the presence of drug use and corruption: Implications for its management in South Africa
(International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 2015-05-28) Muchapondwa, Edwin; Brick, Kerri; Visser, Martine
Open Access
Addressing Plastic Bags Consumption Crises through Plastic Bag Levy, Retailer Monetary and Non-monetary Interventions in South Africa
(2022) Abiola, Babatunde; Visser, Martine
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.
Open Access
An analysis of household water consumption in the City of Cape Town using a panel data set (2016-2020)
(2022) Kaplan, Anna Leah; Er, Sebnem; Visser, Martine
Understanding consumer behaviour with respect to water consumption has become an active field of study. This thesis uses a household billing dataset that tracks the quantity of water consumed by households in the City of Cape Town (CoCT) from 2016 to 2020. The household billing data was filtered to include only household observations and then aggregated to the ward level. As a result, the aggregated data is a balanced spatial panel dataset including 20 quarterly observations for each of the 88 wards. Using the billing data set, multiple linear regression models, panel data models as well as spatial panel models were implemented to predict ward level water consumption. Using several visualisations and statistical measures, this thesis found that consumption dropped significantly during the drought period (2016-2018) and also found spatial clusters of water consumption in the CoCT. The data showed that before and after the drought, water consumption exhibited a seasonal pattern which was absent during the drought period. It is also noted that although consumption levels after the drought increase, they do not rise as high as pre-drought levels. The linear models implemented in this thesis resulted in an Adjusted R-squared values of up to 0.85, implying that the independent variables used in the models explain a large amount of variation observed in the dependent variable, quantity of ward level water consumption.
Open Access
An analysis of subsidies within the plastics recycling industry
(2016) Black, David; Visser, Martine; Grybowski, Lukasz
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used in the manufacture of food and beverage containers, in addition to a variety of fibres. PET is considered to be 100% recyclable and can be recycled into a number of different end-use streams: bottle-to-bottle; bottle-to-foodgrade, or bottle-to-fibre. In South Africa, the PET Recycling Company (trading as PETCO) was established to avoid the possibility of government-imposed punitive legislation and to alleviate the impact of PET-based litter. PETCO generates revenue through the collection of voluntary levies from PET manufacturers and supports the recycling of PET through the administration of recycling subsidies and the unlocking of constraints in the PET recycling value chain. This study sets out to describe the PET recycling industry and empirically assess the effectiveness of PETCO's recycling subsidies through regression analysis. As a background to the regression analysis, the study builds the theory behind production and cost function analysis (in addition to the associated duality theory). However, due to the combination of the research question and the limited data availability, an alternative model was adopted, in order to explain as much variation in production tonnages as possible.
Open Access
The announcement effect : the impact of early warnings of future thresholds under different framing and risk contexts
(2015) Child, Alexander Fairfax; Visser, Martine
The effect of announcing future institutional change is investigated in three different contexts: a gains frame, a loss frame, and a loss frame with risk. The institutional change is the transition from a normal public goods game into a threshold public goods game. Announcements may change subject behaviour, through influencing their expectations, before the implementation of the new institution (adjustment effect) and/or after the implementation (adaptation effect).We find that announcements in the gains frame cause zero adjustment effects and negative adaptation effects; while announcements in the loss frame cause positive adjustment and adaptation effects. However, including risk into the threshold phase of the loss frame causes the announcements to have zero effects. These results have important implications for the climate change debate.
Open Access
Behavioural economic applications to climate change mitigation and adaptation: public good games and risk experiments
(2014) Brick, Kerri; Visser, Martine
This thesis contributes to the economics of climate change by incorporating insights from behavioural economics. As both mitigation and adaptation are components of any climate change strategy, the four papers presented here use laboratory and field experiments to examine different dimensions of individuals' mitigation and adaptive behaviour. The papers in Section 1 utilise framed public good games to focus on two different aspects of the public goods dilemma synonymous with climate change mitigation. In this context, the first paper 'What is fair? An experimental guide to climate negotiations' examines the degree to which the use of particular burden-sharing principles in multilateral climate change negotiations reflects self-interest. The multi-country public good game is conducted with a sample of individuals from the United States, European Union, China, India and South Africa. The results signal the use of the historical and future polluter-pays rules by American and Chinese participants to reflect self-interest. The potential for groups of heterogeneous individuals to meet a collective emission-reduction target through individual contributions is examined in the second paper: "Cooperation and Climate Change: Can Communication Facilitate the Provision of Public Goods in Heterogeneous Agents?" Heterogeneity is framed as differences in participants' marginal abatement costs. While communication promotes cooperation, even when heterogeneity is present, the non-binding nature of communication results in the two dominant contribution strategies of free-riding and perfect-cooperation. The papers in Section 2 examine the role of risk and uncertainty in individuals' adaptive strategies. The correlation between risk attitudes and individuals' flood adaptation strategies is examined in the third paper: "Risk Attitudes and Adaptation: Experimental Evidence from a Flood Prone Urban Informal Settlement in South Africa." Risk attitudes are elicited from a series of lottery tasks conducted across a sample of individuals living in a flood-prone urban informal settlement. The results indicate that individuals adopting more effective (and costly) adaptation strategies are more risk averse. The fourth paper "Risk Preferences, Technology Adoption and Insurance Uptake" uses lottery tasks and a framed insurance game to examine whether the provision of a framed index insurance product induces individuals to opt into riskier but potentially more profitable activities. Experiment participants are small-scale and subsistence urban food growers. The results indicate that risk-averse individuals are more likely to opt into traditional agriculture and are less likely to use modern farming inputs that require financing.
Open Access
Climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural intensification in developing countries
(2020) Mulwa, Chalmers Kyalo; Visser, Martine
The recent threat of climate change has exacerbated the inherent risks in smallholder farming such as soil degradation, resulting in an unprecedented decline in agricultural yields in developing countries. This has threatened the livelihoods of large segments of populations that are heavily dependent on agriculture for survival in these regions. This dissertation focuses on identifying barriers and enablers of effective management of these risks, with an aim of coming up with potential policy interventions that can reduce vulnerability to the mentioned risks. To achieve this, the dissertation utilizes various methods and approaches as well as diverse datasets in two countries in sub Saharan Africa i.e. Namibia and Kenya. Diversification into non-farm activities is seen by many as a risk management strategy in rural areas where highly variable low farm incomes are transformed into stable high non-farm incomes, thus improving the welfare of the rural populations. While this theory of change is uncontested, the importance that the agricultural sector plays as a source of livelihood for rural populations, as well as food provisioning for urban populations, cannot be downplayed. This is more so given the limited non-farm opportunities in developing countries and the exponential population growth in these countries. The two factors combined impede on the envisioned transformation of rural production sectors and also create a sub-population of food insecure urban poor due to rural-urban migration. To mitigate these problems, rural agricultural development is still paramount and strategies that enhance resilience to risks in the sector are still vital. Chapter 2 of this dissertation focuses on this issue and addresses how farm diversification can be leveraged for improved food security in the rural areas, which has potential spill-over effects to other segments of the population. Focusing on northern Namibia, the study evaluates how different levels of diversification in both crop and livestock farming affect household food security outcomes i.e. per capita food expenditure and dietary diversity score. The study employs relatively new econometric methods in these type of studies to evaluate the joint determinants to both crop and livestock diversification, as well as their singular and joint effect on mentioned food security outcomes. The results show that high levels of diversification in either enterprise leads to high food security outcomes. Combined with climate change adaptation strategies that create resilience of agricultural production to climatic shocks, the use of sustainable agricultural intensification practices can further enhance productivity in the sector. Inputs like inorganic fertilizer, organic manure and improved seeds can further build on resilient systems to improve yields. Chapter 3 of this dissertation addresses this issue by looking at whether changes in the larger agri-food systems can be used to incentivize take up of such practices at the farm level. The study evaluates how the emergence of large traders in smallholder grain markets can drive the uptake of inorganic and organic fertilizer and improved seeds. The study thus expands the intervention space available to policy makers who have in the past resorted to potentially distortionary direct policies in the input markets e.g. through subsidy provision, as well as in the output markets e.g. through regulation of prices. To achieve this, the study uses a large panel dataset from Kenya spanning over a decade to evaluate how engagements between farmers and these market actors can be leveraged to drive adoption of these sustainable intensification inputs. Results show that engagements between large grain traders and farmers enhance use of inorganic fertilizer. There is no evidence that these engagements lead to enhanced use of improved seeds or manure. However, past use of improved seeds and manure are shown to affect their subsequent use, implying path dependency in the use of these sustainable inputs hence low dis-adoption rates. Traditional technology adoption studies show that access to information is a critical success factor for the uptake of new technology. Proxy variables for information access, for example proximity to extension services or frequency of extension contact, have consistently been shown to be positively correlated with technology adoption. In the context of climate change, access to weather information can be a critical factor to adoption of adaptation technology. Chapter 4 of this dissertation deals with this issue and assesses whether provision of weather information to farmers can enhance adoption of improved farming technologies that are resilient to climatic shocks. The study focuses on northern Namibia where access to such information, as the study shows, is very limited. A framed experiment approach is utilised to evaluate how climate change-induced uncertainty affects farmers' decision making in a farming season, based on their elicited behavioural attitudes towards risk and uncertainty. Further, the study tests whether providing weather information that reduces this uncertainty leads to adoption of technologies that are welfare improving. Lastly, the demand for weather information is assessed by eliciting the willingness to pay for information under various levels of weather uncertainty. Results indicate that high levels of uncertainty dampen uptake of welfare improving technologies, regardless of individual attitudes towards uncertainty. Availing of weather information leads to welfare improving technology choice, given the prevailing levels of weather uncertainty. There is also a high demand for weather information which is shown to increase with increase in the level of weather uncertainty. The chapters in the dissertation therefore identify key policy variables that can be used to manage vulnerability to risks emanating from climate change and unsustainable production in smallholder farming. Access to comprehensive climate information encompassing weather information and climate change-specific management information on both crop and livestock farming is shown to be a key factor in the uptake of adaptation strategies like use of resilient inputs and farm diversification. Interventions along the value chain like teaming up with large market actors in a private-public engagement is shown to be a potential pathway towards enhancing uptake of sustainable intensification inputs. Other policy variables like credit provision, high education and access to off-farm incomes are also key in explaining uptake of risk management strategies by smallholder farmers in Namibia and Kenya.
Open Access
Competition Policy and Privatisation in the South African Water Industry
(2001-03) Conradie, Beatrice; Goldin, Jacqui; Leiman, Anthony; Standish, Barry; Visser, Martine
The aim of this working paper is to investigate the optimal regulatory routes from a competition and public interest point of view for the South African water industry. The working paper presents the basic conditions of the water sector by outlining the main characteristics of water, providing an historical and international overview of water management in South Africa.
Metadata only
Contribution Norms in Heterogeneous Groups: A Climate Change Framing
(Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) van der Hoven, Zoe; Visser, Martine; Brick, Kerri
Open Access
Could catchment conservation be funded through urban water tariffs? A case study of three South African cities
(2022) du Plessis, Nicola; Turpie, Jane; Visser, Martine; Anderson, Pippin
Water scarcity is a global issue that has traditionally been addressed by over-abstracting surface water and constructing more dams. However, these solutions are environmentally destructive and, in some cases, insufficient to meet future water demands. To secure future water supply, it is necessary to invest in the protection and restoration of catchment areas which have become degraded due to human activities. In many developing countries, catchment management is financed solely by public funding, which is often insufficient to cover the costs of catchment conservation. Supplementary funding sources thus need to be investigated to ensure the future success of these interventions. This study aimed to address whether household water tariff pricing could be used as a mechanism for securing funds for catchment restoration. The objectives of the study were to (i) elicit households' willingness to pay (WTP) for water, (ii) determine factors influencing WTP, and (iii) investigate whether aggregate revenue generated from households' WTP at the municipal scale could cover the costs needed for catchment conservation in that water service provider region. Household surveys were conducted on 1244 households in three coastal metropolitan municipalities in South Africa: the City of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, and eThekwini. Contingent valuation revealed that average WTP for water across all three municipalities was R540 per household per month, 4.6% more than what households currently pay for water. Factors that significantly influenced WTP included income, age, household size, municipality, and satisfaction with municipal service delivery. Based on the WTP for 11 income categories, aggregate WTP for water amounted to R5.94 billion per year for the City of Cape Town, R5.83 billion per year for eThekwini, and R1.26 billion per year for Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. This translated to a positive consumer surplus of R1.2 billion for the City of Cape Town and R826 million for eThekwini, which is approximately three times greater than the estimated budgets required to cover the costs to restore both of the catchment areas supplying water to these municipalities. Since WTP for water was lower than the amount that residents currently pay in Nelson Mandela Bay, water pricing cannot be considered a mechanism to finance catchment conservation for this municipality. Choice models further revealed that households were willing to pay 34% more than their current water bill to avoid water restrictions, and 22% more to secure water supply through more environmentally sustainable options. These results demonstrate the importance of context and scale when making water investment and pricing decisions over the longer term.
Metadata only
Determinants of the choice of health care facility utilised by individuals in HIV/AIDS-affected households in the Free State province of South Africa
(CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Visser, Martine; Booysen, Frikkie
Open Access
Determinants of the choice of health care facility utilised by individuals in HIV/AIDS-affected households in the Free State province of South Africa
(2004) Visser, Martine; Booysen, Frikkie
This paper analyses differences in the choice of health care facility by individuals in HIV/AIDS-affected households in the Free State province of South Africa. Illness is more prevalent and severe amongst poorer affected households. The probability that individuals seek private versus public health care conditional on individual and household specific socio-economic variables is investigated. Significant determinants of choice of health care facility are income, severity of illness, the burden of illness and death in the household, the number of people in the household with access to medical aid, and secondary education. The demand for private health care over public health care is sensitive to income, with those from the lowest income quintile on average being less likely to switch to private health care than those in the highest income quintile. The planned roll-out of anti-retroviral treatment in public health care facilities in South Africa therefore will be crucial in enabling infected persons from poor households access to treatment. The provision of free treatment at public facilities may also see health care shift from private to public providers in the longer term.
Open Access
Developing consumption feedback principles for monthly utility bills informed by behavioural economics: evidence from controlled experiments
(2017) Brühl, Johanna Maria; Visser, Martine
Better feedback principles for the utility bills in South Africa need to be developed. Utility providers might be able to "nudge" consumers towards more desirable consumption patterns by delivering simpler and better feedback informed by applied behavioural sciences. Two sets of controlled experiments were conducted with over 1,500 subjects to identify bill design strategies that could overcome two major barriers to effective consumption feedback: • the complexity of the utility bill, especially with regards to tariff calculations, and • consumer's declining mindfulness of utility consumption between billing moments. The "Utility Bill Redesign" experiment, using a randomised control trial, investigates how improving billing feedback design increases consumer's understanding of energy usage and costs. More than 1,300 participants are randomly assigned to different treatment groups and receive one of nine redesigned utility bills or the current standard bill. Thereafter, participant's understanding of the bill they received is tested through a questionnaire. We find that restructuring the bill in a logical order and displaying the amount of electricity consumed in each tariff block with separate bar graphs is a successful way to increase consumer understanding of the bill, especially with regards to the step tariff. Further, the results clearly show that consumers are unable to make sense of a utility bill that is not in their home language, even when adding utility specific symbols. We conclude that significant low-cost improvements can be made to utility bills to increase consumer comprehension. In the "Attention Redirection" experiment, participants are assigned to different treatment groups and are given an online task that requires daily attention and effort in order to maximise pay-offs. We find that daily SMS reminders significantly redirect attention to the daily task. A blank graph, given to participants at the beginning of the experiment to assist them in self-managing their behaviour, has no effect on task adherence. The results illustrate how inattention routinely leads to sub-optimal behaviour in a specific task area and the resulting welfare loss. A purely bill-based strategy is rendered unsuccessful.
Open Access
An economic perspective on the influence of social interaction on risky behaviours
(2012) Tibesigwa, Byela; Visser, Martine
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.
Open Access
Economics of climate change: context and concepts related to mitigation
(Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town., 2009) Winkler, Harald; Marquard, Andrew; Tyler, Emily; Visser, Martine; Brick, Kerri
Climate change is increasingly seen as not only an environmental issue, but a deeply economic one. ‘Climate change presents a unique challenge for economics: it is the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen’ (Stern Review 2006). Markets are failing to put a price on the emissions of greenhouse gases, passing the costs on to society as a whole.
Metadata only
Effects of Objective and Subjective Income Comparisons on Subjective Wellbeing
(Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Hodkinson, Brennan; Visser, Martine
Open Access
Empirical and behavioural economic applications to the energy sector
(University of Cape Town, 2020) Klege, Rebecca Afua; Visser, Martine
This thesis contributes to the energy literature by leveraging insights from empirical and experimental economics. The thesis presents four papers with a common goal of understanding specific themes in the energy sector namely: households energy use patterns, behavioural preferences among entrepreneurs operating energy businesses and applications of behavioural nudges to reduce energy use. The first paper set the tone for the two subsequent chapters. The paper: 'Energy Choices and Tenancy in Rwanda' examines the energy choice patterns of households based on their rental status and dwelling types. The fifth Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV5) conducted over one year, October 2016 to October 2017, together with a bivariate probit model is used. A heterogeneous analysis focused on gender and income differentiated impacts, as well as geographical differences based on the tenancy status of households, is further examined. The results signal that households energy choices in Rwanda differ by rental and dwelling types. The second and third papers ascertain the role of competition and risk preferences among entrepreneurs working in off-grid renewable energy microenterprises and its effects on business success in the context of including more women as entrepreneurs in the energy sector. Specifically, the second paper: 'Competition and Gender in the Lab vs Field: Experiments with Off-Grid Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs in Rural Rwanda' examines the gender differences in competitiveness and how this affects the business success of entrepreneurs operating renewable energy enterprises. Results from the economic experiments are compared to the day to day activities of the business. Findings show that female entrepreneurs are not less likely to compete and are not outperformed by male entrepreneurs. This stands in contrast to several studies, mostly conducted on university students of developed countries. The third paper: 'Risk attitudes, Gender and Business Performance Among off-grid Renewable Energy Entrepreneurs in Rural Rwanda' in a similar context examines the risk attitudes among entrepreneurs and its effect on the performance from a gender perspective. The study adopts a choice list experimental approach to elicit risk attitudes. The results indicate a strong risk aversion among entrepreneurs. The risk aversion found is higher for women compared to men. Entrepreneurs with high risk-taking abilities also tend to record better performance levels. The paper concludes that policies geared towards hedging against risk aversion in entrepreneurial programs may be vital in reducing gender gaps in business performance. The fourth paper: 'The power of nudging: Using feedback, competition and responsibility assignment to save electricity in a non-residential setting' answers the question 'can behavioural interventions achieve energy savings in non-residential settings where users do not face the financial consequences of their behaviour?' The paper relies on a randomized control trial and two behavioural interventions. Results show that behavioural nudges can be useful in reducing energy consumption in a non-residential environment.
Metadata only
Fairness and Accountability: Testing Models of Social Norms in Unequal
(Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Visser, Martine
Open Access
Finding a cohesive and effective conservation in the Overberg - an experimental application of the agglomeration bonus
(2009) Modise, Boipuso; Visser, Martine; Leiman, Anthony
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.

Browsing by Author "Visser, Martine"

Results Per Page

Sort Options