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The paper examines the instrumental link between income inequality and social trust, which is considered essential for the collective action required for sustainability. Using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) on World Values Survey data from 20 country-year combinations, the author finds that both absolute income and income inequality significantly influence social trust. Specifically, trust rises with income but falls as income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) increases. The analysis suggests that neither economic growth nor redistribution alone is sufficient to significantly raise trust levels in low-trust societies; instead, a combination of stable growth and narrowing income distributions over approximately two decades is required to produce meaningful changes in social cohesion.

The research uses hedonic pricing to determine that A+ refrigerators in the Basque Autonomous Community carry a price premium of 8.9% (approximately 60 euro), which is only one-third of the potential lifetime energy savings. By combining this with a Linear Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS), the study finds that demand for high-efficiency refrigerators is significantly more price-elastic (ranging from -0.9 to -2.1) than demand for regular refrigerators (-0.25 to -0.75).

The research examines the historical demand for lighting in the UK, finding that income and price elasticities peaked during the late 19th century, leading to 'backfire' where efficiency gains increased total energy use. In the 20th century, elasticities declined, meaning efficiency improvements began to yield net energy savings, though significant rebound effects persist.

The paper challenges the finding that warming is robustly linked to civil war in Sub-Saharan Africa by replicating and testing the model used by Burke et al. (2009). Through influence diagnostics, alternative operationalizations of civil war, and expanded sample periods, the authors find that the reported positive effect of temperature is tenuous and often disappears. The analysis suggests that the original results were driven by a few influential observations involving foreign intervention and that climate variables provide negligible predictive power compared to country-specific fixed effects and time trends.

The paper analyses 60,463 electricity-related energy efficiency recommendations for U.S. manufacturing SMEs, finding that payback time and investment costs are the primary drivers of implementation. It identifies an 'energy efficiency paradox' where firms are more sensitive to upfront costs than long-term savings, and notes that implementation rates are higher in states with higher greenhouse gas emissions and lower industrial GDP.

The study finds that energy efficiency labels (specifically class A+) add a price premium of 15.6% to dishwashers in the Spanish market, amounting to approximately €80 based on an average price of €514. Using a Quantity Based Demand System (QBDS), the authors determine that demand for labelled appliances is significantly more elastic than for non-labelled ones, with own-price elasticity for labelled goods ranging from -1.2 to -13.2. The research suggests that while Spanish subsidy programmes (paying €50 to €90) may have slightly overestimated the necessary premium, they have been highly successful, as nearly all dishwashers currently sold in the market are labelled A or A+.

The document investigates how the global economic slowdown affects greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that while recessions reduce emissions in the short term, the long-term impact depends on whether the downturn permanently lowers the GDP trajectory and how it influences energy prices and investment. It finds that many official projections may underestimate the long-term reduction in emissions by treating the recession as a transitory business cycle effect rather than a permanent shift in output. The authors estimate that the global emissions trajectory could be lowered by 1-5% in the long run, or 5-9% if a 'price rebound' effect from lower energy prices is excluded.

The study establishes a significant positive correlation between temperature increases and cholera cases in Tanzania, predicting that a 1 degree Celsius rise in annual mean temperature increases the risk ratio for cholera by 23 to 51 percent. By 2030, the total economic cost of additional cholera cases and deaths—including treatment, productivity loss, and the value of statistical life—is projected to range from 1.4 to 7.8 percent of GDP. The authors argue that the costs of these climate-driven health impacts largely exceed the costs of preventive measures, such as household chlorination and improved water sanitation.

The research introduces the first quantitative effort to document the small arms market using a dataset of AK-47 prices across 117 countries from 1986 to 2005. By applying a simultaneous equations model, the author finds that regulatory effectiveness and supply costs—specifically neighbours' military expenditure and border porousness—are the primary drivers of weapon prices. The study concludes that the collapse of the Soviet Union did not cause a supply shock as significant as commonly believed, and that regional trade dynamics, particularly in Africa, play a critical role in price determination.

The report analyzes 716 Argentine manufacturing firms to determine what drives the adoption and quality of environmental management activities (EMAs). It finds that larger firms and those with higher spending on technology acquisition are more likely to implement higher-quality EMAs. While environmental regulatory pressure stimulates innovative behavior, it tends to induce 'end-of-pipe' management rather than 'clean production' strategies. Foreign firms are more prone to undertake EMAs than domestic firms, but foreign ownership is associated with lower EMA quality. However, positive environmental spill-overs from foreign firms occur in domestic firms that possess high absorption capabilities, leading them toward 'simple clean production' management.

The report argues that traditional electricity burden assessments undercount the financial strain on businesses by ignoring 'extra costs'—expenses for generators, voltage stabilizers, and alternative energy used to mitigate power outages and fluctuations. Using 2015 survey data from 1,002 grid-connected firms in Benin, the study introduces three metrics (EB1, EB2, EB3) to distinguish between burdens caused by bills alone and those driven by defensive costs. Findings show that extra costs account for 44% of total electricity expenditure and that 60% of businesses face an electricity burden when these costs are included, compared to 55% when only bills are considered. The authors recommend that policymakers in Benin and Sub-Saharan Africa incorporate these defensive costs into policy design, prioritize grid reliability infrastructure, and provide targeted financial support for vulnerable groups, particularly informal sector businesses.

Using Benin as a case study, the report argues that traditional electricity burden assessments—which only consider utility bills—underestimate the true cost of energy for businesses. By introducing three new measures (EB1, EB2, and EB3), the study quantifies the impact of 'extra costs' such as investments in generators and voltage stabilizers. The findings reveal that these preventive measures account for 44% of total electricity expenditures for connected businesses. The report highlights that informal sector businesses and those with less-educated managers are particularly vulnerable, and recommends that policymakers integrate these hidden costs into energy strategies and prioritize grid reliability to reduce the need for costly private mitigation.

The research paper develops a formal model and provides empirical analysis to argue that third-party military intervention in civil wars is driven by economic factors. The authors find that the likelihood of intervention increases when the conflict state has large oil reserves, when the global oil market is more oligopolistic (less competitive), and when the potential intervener is a net oil importer. Using a dyadic dataset from 1945-1999, the study demonstrates that the value of oil reserves and the intervener's balance of trade in oil are significant predictors of intervention, often exerting a larger impact than traditional factors like ethnic ties or Cold War dynamics.

The report argues that civil war is 'development in reverse,' creating a 'conflict trap' where poverty and institutional failure increase the risk of war, and war further degrades development. It identifies three rings of adverse effects: internal civilian suffering, regional spillovers (such as arms races and disease), and global costs (including drug trafficking and terrorism). The authors find that civil war is increasingly concentrated in 'marginalized' low-income countries and those in the conflict trap. To combat this, the report proposes a policy package including improved aid timing, transparent natural resource governance, and coordinated military-development sequencing in postconflict decades.

The author replicates and extends the civil war model of Collier & Hoeffler (2002), finding that while natural resources correlate with conflict, the drivers differ by region. In the Middle East, the 'greed' explanation—where rebels fight to seize resources—is less plausible than a 'rentier-state' model, where oil-funded authoritarianism, corruption, and slow growth generate grievances. The study also finds that democracy is significantly and negatively related to civil conflict, a finding absent in the original Collier & Hoeffler analysis.