Person: Mahn, Daniel
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Publication What drives solar energy adoption in developing countries? Evidence from household surveys across countries(2024) Mahn, Daniel; Best, Rohan; Wang, Cong; Abiona, OlukoredeThis study investigates household solar energy uptake in developing countries by combining household surveys for 11 countries with area-level data. We use data from World Bank surveys for countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. Our probit regressions use up to 36,653 household observations and cover actual uptake rather than intentions. The main result shows that households further from capital cities are less likely to have solar home systems. Furthermore, there are strong links between assets and solar uptake across solar types such as solar home systems, solar lighting systems, and solar lanterns. This is an important finding given the small number of prior studies that use actual uptake data for developing countries and the mixed results from prior literature. We do not find evidence that households in sunnier areas are more likely to have solar home systems across countries. This study motivates policymakers to consider greater support for households far from capital cities, in sunnier regions, and with low levels of assetsPublication The optimism effect on country productivity and innovation activities(2024) Mahn, Daniel; Wang, Cong; Kent, Danielle; Heaton, ChrisThis study focuses on how optimism translates into innovation outcomes. While the link has been estab lished at a microeconomic level, its translation to an aggregate economic effect is still an open question. Empirical analysis draws from a yearly sample of 42 (mainly OECD) countries between 2000 and 2020 to test the effect of economic optimism on R&D measures from both the consumer’s and producer’s points of view at the aggregate level. Using modern econometric techniques that address potential endogeneity issues, the results suggest that economic optimism supports an increase in innovation activity and economic perfor mance but not an increase in innovation outcomes, such as more patent production. The implication is that an economically optimistic environment is an important contribution to a nation’s entrepreneurial ecosys tem. This novel insight shows that firms need not specifically recruit optimistic individuals to reap the bene fits of the optimism effect. Policies that encourage economic optimism can orchestrate an environment in which the benefits of the optimism effect are realized, independent of the individual personality traits of its citizens.