Master Thesis on The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms in Developing Countries

The Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) jointly seek a candidate for a Master Thesis on The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms in Developing Countries – The Case of Peru.

Background and Research Questions
Water supply and sanitation are essential conditions for human development. However, particularly developing countries face severe problems in supplying people with a sufficient amount of clean water and disposing wastewater. Water pricing reforms are often seen as one means to overcome these problems. Such reforms typically imply higher water prices for many customers. Consequently, reforms are often subject to strong political and societal opposition – and have failed or been postponed in many developing countries.

This master thesis is meant to analyze systematically the barriers to water pricing reforms and possible political strategies to overcome them. What are critical factors for a reform to succeed or to fail? How should the reform be designed and timed?

What are windows of opportunity that should be used? Which complementary measures may be necessary? To answer these questions, this master thesis is first of all meant to review the positive and negative experiences which have been made in developing countries. Subsequently, these insights shall be transferred to the case of Peru in order to determine the specific barriers to and avenues for water pricing reforms in this country.

We offer …
- research stays at the UFZ Department of Economics in Leipzig and the GIZ Office in Lima, Peru, with a duration of approximately three months each
- individual supervision and discussion of the master thesis
- integration into an international research project
- exciting insight into the life of science and development cooperation
- partial refund of travel and living expenditures in Germany and Peru