PEDL accepting Applications for 1st Special ERG Call on Climate Change

Deadline: 31-Aug-20

The Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) is currently inviting applications to the first of this special ERG call for research on firms and climate change.

While “Social Compliance and the Environment” is one of four PEDL themes, they now have a dedicated fund for work specifically related to understanding the relationship between private sector development and the environment. Policymakers in lower-income countries face many challenges in supporting private firms. Climate change adds to those challenges. They seek proposals for research which will enable policymakers to make more informed decisions.

This extension to the PEDL programme is intended to draw particular attention to these issues surrounding abatement and adaptation. While they are open to proposals on any topic related to the effect of climate on private sector development or the effect of firms.

ERGs are designed to allow researchers to explore new approaches to the study of firms in LICs and to develop new (or build on) existing sources of data on firms in LICs.

The objective of PEDL is to fund cutting-edge, policy-oriented research that could be published in leading academic journals and be relevant to the policy dialogue in LICs. As per usual, they will promote research related to private enterprises of all sizes but, given the focus on climate change in this call, there is no emphasis on PEDL’s four research themes. However, they still particularly encourage proposals that address one or more of PEDL’s three cross-cutting themes:

• Fragile and conflict affected states
• Gender
• Unlocking data for understanding markets and firms

Areas

PEDL highlight three areas:

• Climate and productivity: There is increasing evidence that pollution and higher temperatures lead to lower productivity (e.g., Graff Zivin and Neidell (2012)). There is less evidence on adaptation strategies that firms might take to ameliorate these negative effects (e.g. Adhvaryu et al. (2019)).
• Building resilience: Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather events. understanding of the effects of climate uncertainty at the firm and market level is limited, but one example is Balboni and Boehm’s ongoing PEDL-funded work examining adaptive decisions of firms in the aftermath of flood events to help limit exposure to future floods.
• Regulation and productivity: environmental regulation will, by its design, change how firms operate. This could have significant impacts on productivity. He et al. (2019) on the enforcement of tighter environmental standards on certain firms. Currently, knowledge in this area of research is primarily based on short-run outcomes. However, if firms can offset costs of environmental compliance through adaptation strategies, longer-run evaluation is needed.

Examples of additional questions relevant to this theme are:

• How does climate uncertainty affect firm-level decisions and market structure?
• How can firms and markets adapt to the presence of increasingly frequent severe weather events?
• How can environmental regulation be ensured even in countries with weak enforcement institutions?
• How are preferences of consumers in destination countries transmitted to firms in lower-income countries?
• Fragile and conflict affected states
• Gender
• Unlocking data for understanding markets and firms

Funding Information

• ERGs are grants of between £10,000 and £40,000.
• These grants will fund research assistance, data collection and new surveys in LICs, and (if necessary) teaching buyouts for the principal investigator.

Please Note: That cost effectiveness and value for money are important evaluation criteria and costs considered to be unreasonable may result in a lower proposal rating.

Timeframe

ERG projects typically run for 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Only individuals can apply for a PEDL Exploratory Grant.
• PEDL Exploratory Grants will be issued through a contract between CEPR and the successful applicant directly.
• In exceptional circumstances, a contract with an institution can be issued, but the contract will be non-negotiable, and the institution cannot take any overheads. This applies also to Doctoral students.