Lipscomb co-edits a review of sanitation research

Molly Lipscomb, associate professor of public policy and economics at UVA Batten, has been invited to serve as a senior editor for a review of research from around the world on sanitation infrastructure. 

VoxDev launched the literature review earlier this month with an online presentation featuring Lipscomb and her two co-editors. The review highlights key findings from the economic research on the welfare impacts of sanitation investments and the effectiveness of strategies to expand coverage, focusing on the findings most relevant to policymakers. 

Lipscomb, the director of Batten’s Center for Social Innovation, focuses her research on the impact of and strategies for bringing public services such as electricity and sanitation to poor households in developing countries.  Among other issues, she has analyzed the incentives to pollute near downstream borders, the impact of access to electricity on human development and poverty indicators, the impact of increased agricultural productivity on deforestation, the effectiveness of auctions in reducing prices for sanitation services, and methods of targeting subsidies to households to increase take-up of improved sanitation services.