Scholars@Duke
Robyn Meeks

Robyn Meeks CV

Mark and Lynne Florian Associate Professor of Public Policy
Sanford School of Public Policy
robyn.meeks@duke.edu
Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708
258 Rubenstein Hall, Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Selected Publications

Incentivizing Grid Reliability: A Framework for Performance-Linked Electricity Improvements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Report · October 6, 2025 Reliable electricity is the foundation of modern economies and essential to social and human development. Without it, firms cannot expand, hospitals cannot operate safely, and households hesitate to invest in appliances and tools that improve daily life. I ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Decentralized renewable energy to grow manufacturing? Evidence from microhydro mini-grids in Nepal

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · March 1, 2025 Firms in developing countries often identify electricity as a major constraint to operations. Decentralized renewable energy sources, which are often promoted as a tool to achieve sustainable development, could help alleviate these constraints by providing ... Full text Cite

Breaking the culture of nonpayment: A qualitative analysis of utility intervention in Pakistan

Journal Article Utilities Policy · December 1, 2024 Reliable electricity access is vital to economic growth, though financial challenges can undermine service quality. In Karachi, Pakistan, the local utility intervened to reduce losses and improve bill revenue recovery. The intervention increased budgets to ... Full text Cite

The Economics of Electricity and Development: Planning for Growth and a Changing Climate

Journal Article Annual Review of Resource Economics · October 7, 2024 Many low- and middle-income countries have made tremendous gains in electrification over the past few decades. These improvements in electricity access have enabled a growing body of empirical evidence on its impacts. This article complements prior reviews ... Full text Cite

Cleaning up the Great Lakes: Housing market impacts of removing legacy pollutants

Journal Article Journal of Public Economics · October 1, 2023 The Great Lakes and their tributaries make up the largest freshwater system on the planet, providing drinking water and recreational value to millions of people. Yet manufacturing plants left a legacy of toxic pollutants in the region, tarnishing it as par ... Full text Cite

Impacts of electricity quality improvements: Experimental evidence on infrastructure investments

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · July 1, 2023 Hundreds of millions of households depend on electricity grid connections providing low quality and unreliable services. Understanding the impacts of and consumer response to electricity quality improvements is important for development and the environment ... Full text Cite

Reducing information barriers to solar adoption: Experimental evidence from India

Journal Article Energy Economics · April 1, 2023 Off-grid solar technologies hold promise for unelectrified and low-quality electricity settings; however, their adoption remains low. Important barriers to adoption, such as incomplete information remain relatively unexplored in developing countries. In co ... Full text Cite

Energy efficiency and electricity reliability

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · July 12, 2021 —Overloaded electrical systems are a major source of unreliable power. Using a randomized saturation design, we estimate the impact of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) on electricity reliability and household electricity consumption in the Kyrgyz Republic. ... Full text Cite

The economics of energy efficiency in developing countries

Journal Article Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · June 1, 2021 Full text Cite

Waste Not: Can Household Biogas Deliver Sustainable Development?

Journal Article Environmental and Resource Economics · March 15, 2019 Household biogas systems are a renewable energy technology with the potential to provide sustainable development benefits by reducing pressure on forest stocks and by shifting household time allocation towards higher value activities or long-term investmen ... Full text Cite

Property Rights and Water Access: Evidence from Land Titling in Rural Peru

Journal Article World Development · February 1, 2018 Insecure land tenure and property rights are an impediment to infrastructure access and services for households in many developing countries. This paper explores whether alleviating this impediment through a land-titling program in rural Peru is associated ... Full text Cite

Water works: The economic impact of water infrastructure

Journal Article Journal of Human Resources · January 1, 2017 Billions of hours are spent each year on water collection in developing countries. This paper explores whether improvements in water technologies, which decrease household distance to drinking water source and the time intensity of home production, enable ... Full text Cite

Is water security necessary? An empirical analysis of the effects of climate hazards on national-level economic growth

Journal Article Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences · November 13, 2013 The influence of climate and the role of water security on economic growth are topics of growing interest. Few studies have investigated the potential role that climate hazards, which water security addresses, and their cumulative effects have on the growt ... Full text Cite

Hydroclimate risk to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa

Journal Article Climatic Change · June 1, 2011 In order to plan strategies for adaptation to climate change, the current effects of climate on economic growth need to be understood. This study reviews evidence of climate effects on economic growth and presents original analysis of the effect in Sub-Sah ... Full text Cite