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Field
Abstract
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Before
South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts but also one with vast untapped renewable energy potential (World Bank, 2021). Pakistan, for example, is endowed with huge solar energy resources and utilizing just 0.071% of the country’s area for solar photovoltaic installations would meet its current electricity needs (World Bank, 2021). The transition to renewables would help the country not only fulfil its growing energy demand and curb its carbon emissions, but also mitigate the high cost and unreliability of electricity from the grid, which is almost universally cited by local firms as a major constraint to competitiveness (Bacon, 2019). While larger exporting firms have begun to adopt solar energy also to comply with the environmental standards imposed by their globally branded customers, the more neglected market segment of small-medium enterprises is falling behind, according to a local source active in the solar market.
In this exploratory study, we intend to design and administer a survey across a sample of about 400 owners of small-medium manufacturing enterprises in the garment and food storage sectors in central Punjab to better understand the main structural, informational and behavioural barriers that prevent business owners from switching to greener energy sources such as solar power. In particular, we will elicit respondents’ personal preferences, beliefs and attitudes around solar energy sources, as well as their intended behaviour or expected likelihood of adopting solar energy. In addition, we aim to conduct a randomized information experiment, embedded within the same survey, to test whether specific information provision is effective at changing respondents’ beliefs, attitudes and intentions in relation to purchasing solar energy.
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After
South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts but also one with vast untapped renewable energy potential (World Bank, 2021). Pakistan, for example, is endowed with huge solar energy resources and utilizing just 0.071% of the country’s area for solar photovoltaic installations would meet its current electricity needs (World Bank, 2021). The transition to renewables would help the country not only fulfil its growing energy demand and curb its carbon emissions, but also mitigate the high cost and unreliability of electricity from the grid, which is almost universally cited by local firms as a major constraint to competitiveness (Bacon, 2019). While larger exporting firms have begun to adopt solar energy also to comply with the environmental standards imposed by their globally branded customers, the more neglected market segment of small-medium enterprises is falling behind, according to a local source active in the solar market.
In this exploratory study, we intend to design and administer a survey across a sample of about 400 owners of small-medium manufacturing enterprises in central Punjab to better understand the main structural, informational and behavioural barriers that prevent business owners from switching to greener energy sources such as solar power. In particular, we will elicit respondents’ personal preferences, beliefs and attitudes around solar energy sources, as well as their intended behaviour or expected likelihood of adopting solar energy. In addition, we aim to conduct a randomized information experiment, embedded within the same survey, to test whether specific information provision is effective at changing respondents’ beliefs, attitudes and intentions in relation to purchasing solar energy.
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Field
Trial Start Date
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Before
November 01, 2024
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After
January 27, 2025
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Field
Trial End Date
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Before
August 01, 2025
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After
December 31, 2025
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Field
Last Published
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Before
October 21, 2024 05:04 AM
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After
January 26, 2025 10:05 AM
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Field
Intervention Start Date
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Before
November 01, 2024
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After
January 27, 2025
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
April 01, 2025
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After
July 31, 2025
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Field
Randomization Method
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Before
By computer, the randtreat command in Stata, stratified by sector (textiles or food/beverage) and firm-size (small or medium).
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After
By computer, the randtreat command in Stata.
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Field
Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
We are starting with a listing of 642 firms, which we have randomized into control, treatment 1, and treatment 2, stratified by sector and firm-size. However, given the low response rates when surveying firms and the possibility that some firms may have already installed solar between the listing and the roll out of the project, we hope for a completed sample of 300-400 firms.
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After
We are aiming for 400 firms.
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Field
Planned Number of Observations
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Before
300-400 firms
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After
400 firms
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
We are starting with a listing of 642 firms, which we have randomized into control (213 firms), treatment 1 (216 firms), and treatment 2 (213 firms), stratified by sector and firm-size.
However, given the difficulty of surveying firms and the possibility that some firms may have already installed solar between the listing and the roll out of the project, we hope for a completed sample of 300-400 firms, with the following distribution:
~100 to 133 firms Treatment 1
~100 to 133 firms Treatment 2
~100 to 133 firms Control Group
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After
We hope for a completed sample of 400 firms, with the following distribution:
~100 to 133 firms Treatment 1
~100 to 133 firms Treatment 2
~100 to 133 firms Control Group
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