Laura Schechter , an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will lead a seminar on Penn State's University Park campus on the availability of clean sanitation technologies in developing countries.
Her free talk - "Imperfect Competition and Sanitation: Evidence from Randomized Auctions in Senegal" - is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, Dec. 10, in 157 Hosler Building. The event is part of a fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI).
Schechter studied - and will address - "the extent to which collusion can explain the under-provision" of these technologies, she said in an abstract. Using latrine desludging services in Dakar as a case study, research found prices 40% lower in competitive areas compared with places where a trade association coordinates prices, she said.
Researchers tested for collusive conduct and estimated welfare costs of imperfect competition.
"Consistent with the collusion hypothesis, we find that bidders systematically avoid competition by placing round focal bids and refraining from undercutting rivals," Schechter said in the abstract.
A simulation indicates that replacing noncompetitive bidders with competitive ones would increase adoption of better sanitation technology, according to the research. It suggests more competition would improve health.
Schechter, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Economics at UW Madison, is associate editor of the Economic Journal. Her work uses experimental methods and causal econometric analysis to study topics related to reciprocity and trust, vote-buying, sanitation and technology adoption.
Schechter is a former co-editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and a former associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Her work has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries research program, among other entities.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.
