Public Policy

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Browsing Public Policy by Author "Atakhanova, Zauresh"

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    A Study of Household Coal Demand and its Implications for Rural Energy Policies
    (Resources Policy, 2016-03-29) Atakhanova, Zauresh; Howie, Peter
    Household use of coal creates high levels of indoor and outdoor pollution affecting human health and the environment. However, millions of people across northern Asia and some parts of Europe continue using coal for space heating and cooking. As a result, the case of Kazakhstan is of interest because 70% of its rural households use coal for heating. Availability of a relatively large dataset allows for identifying determinants of household coal demand and making policy recommendations. By analyzing Kazakhstan’s household budget survey data, we find that lack or limited access to alternative heating systems, low coal prices, and low energy efficiency of the housing stock are the main factors leading to high rates of residential coal use in Kazakhstan. In addition, we find that in the absence of relevant policies, household demand for coal for space heating should be expected to grow with income. As a result, if the government implements policies to increase coal prices, it should introduce concurrent policies that increase access to alternative heating systems and incentivize energy efficiency improvements.
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    Resource boom and inequality: Kazakhstan as a case study
    (Resources Policy, 2014-03) Howie, Peter; Atakhanova, Zauresh
    Our research investigates the impact of a major resource boom on income inequality within Kazakhstan's regions using household-level data across the entire income distribution and within the top and bottom halves of the income distribution. In addition, we evaluate the inequality dynamics separately in urban and rural areas. The theoretical foundation shows that a resource boom will decrease income inequality through the labor market if the non-traded sector is relatively intensive in its use of unskilled labor. Government transfers financed by resource income can further reduce inequality. Our regression analysis indicates that resource booms lower inequality when we control for the effect of changing labor income, institutional quality, education levels, and public health care spending. In addition, quality of institutions is an important equalizing factor for the lower income households in urban areas, but not in rural areas. Public health programs decrease overall inequality in the rural areas; however, they do not affect the bottom half of the income distribution.© 2013 Elsevier Ltd.