Jörg Peters
Jörg Peters
Head of Research Department “Climate Change and Development”, RWI
Jörg Peters heads the research group “Climate Change and Development” at RWI and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Passau. His research focuses on environmental, energy and development economics. In this context, Jörg leads several projects across Africa that study infrastructure roll-out and climate policy as well as demand and supply side constraints on markets for new technologies. Using both randomized and non-randomized designs, his work has covered energy-efficient cookstoves, grid-based electrification, off-grid solar, and irrigation. Moreover, Jörg is engaged in the research transparency debate and interested in finding the right evaluation methodology for the policy question at hand.
Jörg’s work has been covered in media outlets such as The Economist, The Conversation, and Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Zeit. He has advised several international organizations such as the World Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). He is Associate Editor at World Development Perspectives as well as a research associate at the Environment for Development (EfD) network at the University of Gothenburg and the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI) at Duke University.
Jörg studied economics and statistics in Cologne and Paris and holds a PhD from Ruhr-University Bochum. His research findings have been published in leading journals, including Journal of Health Economics, Nature Energy, and the World Bank Economic Review
My Work
The elusive quest for sustainable off-grid electrification: new evidence from Indonesia
Portfolio evaluation of US Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Green Prosperity Program in Indonesia – new evidence indicates that concerns about the sustainability of mini-grids and off-grid energy systems have not gone away.
To reduce in-home pollution, pay attention to improved ventilation
We find that improved household ventilation in rural Senegal can reduce kitchen pollution levels by a similar amount as upgrading fuel and stove technology, once we account for real world cooking practices. The effects of ventilation alone are likely insufficient to deliver elusive health impacts, however, and should thus be seen as an interim step toward realizing the benefits of clean cooking.