Zaveri, Esha

Person:
Zaveri, Esha

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Zaveri, Esha

Fields of Specialization

Environmental economics, Water, Agriculture, Development

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Esha Zaveri

Last updated:August 31, 2025

Biography

Esha Zaveri is a Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice at the World Bank. Before this, she was a senior economist at the World Bank's Water Global Practice and a core team member of the Water, Economics, and Climate Change Global Solutions Group. Her work centers around water resource management, climate impacts, and environmental health and spans from global to region- and country-level assessments in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. She has published on these topics in leading scientific journals and authored numerous flagship reports of the World Bank, including on water scarcity (Uncharted Waters, 2017), water pollution (Quality Unknown, 2019), environmentally harmful subsidies (Detox Development, 2023), and droughts (Droughts and Deficits, 2023). She has also led flagship reports on water, migration, and development (Ebb & Flow, 2021) and recently on the economics of groundwater (The Hidden Wealth of Nations, 2023). Before joining the World Bank, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Center on Food Security and the Environment, where she remains an affiliated scholar. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Economics and Demography from Pennsylvania State University.

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Now showing1 - 10 of 21

Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-01) Damania, Richard; Ebadi, Ebad; Mayr, Kentaro; Russ, Jason; Zaveri, Esha
“Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet” explores how the foundational natural endowments of land, air, and water—long taken for granted—are under growing threat, putting at risk the very progress they helped create. For generations, natural resources have powered development, supporting health, food, energy, and economic opportunity. Today, strains on these resources are intensifying. This report argues that failing to maintain a livable planet is not merely a distant environmental concern, but a present economic threat. Drawing on new data, the report shows that over 90 percent of the world is exposed to poor air quality, degraded land, or water stress. Loss of forests cuts rainfall, dries soils, and worsens droughts, costing billions of dollars. The nitrogen paradox emerges—fertilizers boost yields but overuse in some regions harms crops and ecosystems. Meanwhile, air and water pollution silently damage health, productivity, and cognition, sapping human potential. The report warns that these hidden costs are too large to ignore. Yet the message is not one of constraint but of possibility. Nature, when wisely stewarded, can drive growth, create jobs, and build resilience. The report shows that more efficient resource use—like better nitrogen management and forest restoration—yields benefits that far exceed the costs. It also urges a shift to cleaner sectors and producing “better things,” noting that these provide new sources of growth, creating more jobs per dollar invested. The findings are clear: Investing in nature is not only good for the planet, it is smart development.
Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-06-15) Damania, Richard; Balseca, Esteban; de Fontaubert, Charlotte; Gill, Joshua; Kim, Kichan; Rentschler, Jun; Russ, Jason; Zaveri, Esha
Clean air, land, and oceans are critical for human health and nutrition and underpin much of the world’s economy. Yet they suffer from degradation, poor management, and overuse due to government subsidies. "Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies" examines the impact of subsidies on these foundational natural assets. Explicit and implicit subsidies—estimated to exceed US$7 trillion per year—not only promote inefficiencies but also cause much environmental harm. Poor air quality is responsible for approximately 1 in 5 deaths globally. And as the new analyses in this report show, a significant number of these deaths can be attributed to fossil fuel subsidies. Agriculture is the largest user of land worldwide, feeding the world and employing 1 billion people, including 78 percent of the world’s poor. But it is subsidized in ways that promote inefficiency, inequity, and unsustainability. Subsidies are shown to drive the deterioration of water quality and increase water scarcity by incentivizing overextraction. In addition, they are responsible for 14 percent of annual deforestation, incentivizing the production of crops that are cultivated near forests. These subsidies are also implicated in the spread of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, especially malaria. Finally, oceans support the world’s fisheries and supply about 3 billion people with almost 20 percent of their protein intake from animals. Yet they are in a collective state of crisis, with more than 34 percent of fisheries overfished, exacerbated by open-access regimes and capacity-increasing subsidies. Although the literature on subsidies is large, this report fills significant knowledge gaps using new data and methods. In doing so, it enhances understanding of the scale and impact of subsidies and offers solutions to reform or repurpose them in efficient and equitable ways. The aim is to enhance understanding of the magnitude, consequences, and drivers of policy successes and failures in order to render reforms more achievable.
Nature's Paradox: Stepping Stone or Millstone?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-13) Damania, Richard; Ebadi, Ebad; Mayr, Kentaro; Rentschler, Jun; Russ, Jason; Zaveri, Esha
Does access to natural resources and a clean environment provide a stepping stone out of deprivation, or does it act as a millstone that impedes the transition to greater progress? Nature’s Paradox: Stepping Stone or Millstone? assesses the intersection of the two major crises of the 21st century—the growing scarcity of land, air, and water and rising vulnerability. As countries around the world grapple with multiple crises, local communities and the most vulnerable populations often bear the brunt of the impacts. Vulnerable and underrepresented groups predominantly reside in rural areas, are employed in agriculture, and have limited access to essential public services. While these groups may be less exposed to air and water pollution, the impact of their underrepresentation in decision-making processes is disproportionately high, likely due to a lack of public services and an inability to cope with environmental stresses. These groups also suffer more due to land degradation and deforestation, with the notable exception of Indigenous peoples in Latin America, who experience lower deforestation rates. Understanding the intersection of social vulnerability and environmental degradation helps address these dual crises more effectively. Through this thorough analysis, Nature’s Paradox highlights how sound policy designs can create economic opportunities by promoting environmental sustainability. Its findings will interest policy makers, stakeholders, researchers, development practitioners, and the general public.
Extreme Weather Shocks and Firms in the Middle East and North Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-19) Zaveri, Esha; Gatti, Roberta; Islam, Asif M.
The Middle East and North Africa is the most water scarce region in the world. Although studies have explored the effect of extreme weather events on agriculture, much less is known about the effect on businesses. Using geocoded firm-level data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys across the Middle East and North Africa region, this study analyzes the effects of precipitation shocks on firm performance. The findings show that firms in areas that experience negative precipitation shocks have lower sales, labor productivity, and investment. The study tests a number of channels identified in the literature. Poor infrastructure, such as water and electricity outages, and lower access to finance that occur as a result of negative precipitation shocks are found to be key channels. Negative precipitation increases the share of temporary workers, possibly explaining the drop in labor productivity. A new channel of governance is also uncovered—negative precipitation shocks increase the time spent by senior management in dealing with regulations and expectations of solicitations of bribes. The results also show that firms respond to precipitation shocks by adopting greener practices, suggesting scope for adaptation in the region.
Fixing Nitrogen: Agricultural Productivity, Environmental Fragility, and the Role of Subsidies
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-28) Zaveri, Esha
Nitrogen fertilizer is essential for boosting agricultural yields and food production. However, agricultural subsidies often drive the inefficient application of fertilizer, leading to significant costs for farms, the environment, and economies. Scientific evidence indicates that nitrogen pollution has exceeded safe planetary boundaries, making it one of the world’s largest externalities. Yet, the global economic costs and consequences of subsidized nitrogen fertilizer use remain poorly understood. This paper combines data on subsidies, satellite-derived measures of crop productivity, nitrogen usage, water quality, and spatial and administrative data sets to provide globally comprehensive empirical estimates of the long-term costs of fertilizer use and the role of subsidies. The results show that in regions with large input subsidies, nitrogen overapplication diminishes crop productivity returns and increases nitrogen runoff into waterways, with lasting implications for human health and labor productivity. More than half of global agricultural production occurs in areas with high subsidized nitrogen use, where the marginal benefit of additional fertilizer is negative. This indicates significant potential to reduce fertilizer use without adversely affecting crop yields. Globally, up to 17 percent of nitrogen pollution in water is linked to inefficient input subsidies, contributing to hypoxic zones and harmful algal blooms. Conversely, decoupled subsidies not tied to production reduce these harmful spillovers. These findings underscore the enduring consequences of nitrogen fertilizer, how well intentioned but poorly designed subsidies can aggravate nitrogen waste, and the potential of policies to pave the path to reform.
Nature's Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-27) Damania, Richard; Polasky, Stephen; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Russ, Jason; Amann, Markus; Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca; Gerber, James; Hawthorne, Peter; Heger, Martin Philipp; Mamun, Saleh; Ruta, Giovanni; Schmitt, Rafael; Smith, Jeffrey; Vogl, Adrian; Wagner, Fabian; Zaveri, Esha
The great expansion of economic activity since the end of World War II has caused an unprecedented rise in living standards, but it has also caused rapid changes in earth systems. Nearly all types of natural capital—the world’s stock of resources and services provided by nature—are in decline. Clean air, abundant and clean water, fertile soils, productive fisheries, dense forests, and healthy oceans are critical for healthy lives and healthy economies. Mounting pressures, however, suggest that the trend of declining natural capital may cast a long shadow into the future. "Nature’s Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital" presents a novel approach to address these foundational challenges of sustainability. A methodology combining innovative science, new data sources, and cutting-edge biophysical and economic models builds sustainable resource efficiency frontiers to assess how countries can sustainably use their natural capital more efficiently. The analysis provides recommendations on how countries can better use their natural capital to achieve their economic and environ mental goals. The report indicates that significant efficiency gaps exist in nearly every country. Closing these gaps can address many of the world’s pressing economic and environmental problems—economic productivity, health, food and water security, and climate change. Although the approach outlined in this report will entail demanding policy reforms, the costs of inaction will be far higher.
Thirsty Business: A Global Analysis of Extreme Weather Shocks on Firms
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-25) Gatti, Roberta; Islam, Asif M.; Maue, Casey; Zaveri, Esha
Using global data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys that includes the precise geo-location of surveyed firms, this paper examines how dry spells and precipitation shocks influence firm performance. The study finds that firms in areas that experience dry spells have lower performance in terms of sales. This is particularly true for smaller firms and those in developing economies. A higher number of extreme dry days also increases the chances that a firm will exit the market. The main channels are largely through labor productivity and infrastructure service disruptions such as water and power outages. There is also some evidence of limited access to finance due to negative precipitation shocks. Governance may be an exacerbating factor, with negative precipitation shocks increasing exposure to corruption. Yet, there is also some indication that digitally connected and innovative firms are more resilient to negative precipitation shocks. Process innovation, website ownership, and use of technology licensed from foreign firms mediate the effects of negative precipitation shocks on firm performance. However, there is little evidence of adaptation. Negative precipitation shocks have no effect on the presence of green management practices or green investments for a subset of firms for which such data is available.
Droughts and Deficits: The Global Impact of Droughts on Economic Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-24) Zaveri, Esha; Damania, RIchard; Engle, Nathan
As climate change intensifies, dry rainfall shocks and droughts are a growing concern. At the same time, scientific evidence suggests that the world has surpassed the safe planetary boundary for green water, which is water stored in biomass and soil that is crucial for maintaining climate resilience. Yet, evidence at the global scale of these combined forces on economic growth is poorly understood. This paper attempts to fill this gap by using data on annual subnational gross domestic product for 82 countries from 1990–2014. Using rainfall shocks as plausibly exogenous variations in a spatially specific panel at the grid level, the analysis finds that the global effects of droughts on economic activity are substantial. Moderate to extreme droughts reduce gross domestic product per capita growth between 0.39 and 0.85 percentage point, on average, depending on the level of development and baseline climatic conditions, with low- and middle-income countries in arid areas sustaining the highest relative losses. In high-income countries, moderate droughts have no impact, and only extreme droughts have adverse effects, reducing growth by about 0.3 percentage point, a little less than half the impact felt in the low- and middle-income country sample for the same intensity of drought. Crucially, the impact of a dry shock of a given magnitude also depends on antecedent green water availability. The results show that increases in soil moisture in previous years can neutralize the harmful impacts from a dry shock, with suggestive evidence that local and upstream forest cover are key channels through which these impacts manifest. These findings have important implications for measuring the economic impact of droughts and can inform adaptation investments.
Fit for (re)purpose?: A New Look at the Spatial Distribution of Agricultural Subsidies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-04-21) Ebadi, Ebad; Russ, Jason; Zaveri, Esha
Agricultural subsidies make up a large share of public budgets, exceeding 40 percent of total agricultural production value in some countries. Subsidies are often important components of government strategies to raise agricultural productivity, support agricultural households, and promote food security. They do so by reducing production costs, promoting the use of inputs or modern farming techniques, encouraging the production of certain crops, and raising household incomes. Given the magnitude of these subsidies, their distributional implications and the externalities they impose on the environment are of significant consequence. This paper uses a new spatial analysis to explore the distributional implications of agricultural output subsidies across 16 countries/regions and the distributional and select environmental implications of input subsidies across 23 countries/regions. The findings show that, relative to the spatial distribution of income, both types of subsidy are distributionally mixed. Output subsidies are relatively progressive in 10 countries/regions and regressive in six, while input subsidies are relatively progressive in 11 countries/regions, regressive in nine, and neutral in three. The results also show that input subsidy schemes significantly increase fertilizer use, particularly in richer regions within countries, leading to soil saturation of nitrogen, an indicator of accelerated environmental degradation.
Is Natural Capital a Complement to Human Capital?: Evidence from 46 Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-11-29) Damania, Richard; Herrera Garcia, Luis Diego; Kim, Hyungju; Viotti, Leonardo; Zaveri, Esha; Onder, Stefanie; Pantoja, Chrissie
The environment has long been the foundation of human flourishing, but its continued degradation is threatening to reverse recent development gains, especially in human health. This paper analyzes the possible complementarity between natural and human capital by linking high-resolution deforestation data with health outcomes for 0.7 million children across 46 countries. Forest loss is often a consequence of economic activities that may confer market and other benefits. At the same time, it can adversely affect the provision of forest ecosystem services and reduce the associated socioeconomic and environmental benefits for rural communities. The net effect is thus ambiguous. The paper focuses on the hydrological services provided by forests and exploits quasi-random variation in deforestation upstream to assess the impacts on waterborne disease outcomes for rural households downstream. The results not only indicate increases in diarrheal disease incidence among children under 5 years old, but also offer new evidence of early-life exposure to deforestation on childhood stunting, a well-known indicator of later-life productivity. A case study for Peru shows similar results for diarrheal disease, but a weaker effect of forest loss on stunting. The paper concludes that maintaining natural capital has the potential to generate meaningful improvements in long-run human capital.