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A research partnership between the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) evaluated the impacts of a climate resilience program designed for family farmers in the Brazilian Sertão (MAIS, Módulo Agroclimático Inteligente e Sustentável). Two papers describe the main results of this research. The first paper, published in the journal PLOS One, uses a combination of economic and wellbeing metrics to compare the performance of adopters (MAIS farmers) and non-adopters (control group). The second paper, published in the journal Climate and Development, uses quarterly data for MAIS farmers to analyze the evolution of technical efficiency. The studies highlight that the MAIS program had substantive and significant impacts on production practices, land management, and quality of life in general.

Can you save water if your neighbors do? Understanding the factors influencing the consumption of water has become a central priority for sustainable economic development. Although population and income growth are critical factors for understanding water demand, social behavior also plays a central role. Daniel Morales Martínez and Alexandre Gori Maia (both from UNICAMP) analyzed how residential water consumption is influenced by the consumption of the neighbors (peer effect). The authors highlight how the peer effect differs by social group and is particularly strong among those who overconsume water.

Social distancing was a crucial policy in halting the spread of COVID-19 in the absence of an effective treatment or vaccine. While knowledge on the effects of social distancing in containing the pandemic is developed, its impacts on the economy are not yet clearly understood. Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP), Letícia Marteleto (UT-Austin), Cristina Rodrigues (FIPE/USP), and Luiz  Gustavo Sereno (UNICAMP) analyzed the trade-offs between health and the economy during the period of social distancing in São Paulo (SP), the state hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The authors found robust evidence for the benefits of social distancing on health indicators, while there was no evidence that municipalities with tougher social distancing performed worse economically.

Deepening democratization in Brazil has coincided with sustained flows of domestic migration, which raises an important question of whether migration deepens or depresses democratic development in migrant-sending regions. Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP) and Yao Lu (Columbia University) analyzed the impacts of internal migration on Brazil's municipal elections. The authors show that migration increases electoral participation and competition in migrant-sending localities. The paper (click here for full access) has been published in the journal Demography.

Although reducing poverty in the income or consumption perspective remains a top priority in the developing world, other dimensions are also critical to a decent life, such as health, education, and living conditions. However, one main challenge is to define an indicator that better reflects the multiple dimensions of capabilities or human needs in modern societies. Adriana Stankiewicz Serra (UNICAMP), Gaston Yalonetzky (Leeds University), and Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP) have proposed new multidimensional poverty measures for Brazil, based on essential and policy-relevant well-being indicators that go beyond income needs. The authors highlight how the poor population may more than double if we consider non-monetary dimensions of poverty.