35 research outputs found
Essays on Disaster Risk and Economic Development
No full textThis thesis consists of four self-contained papers in the areas of disaster risk and economic development. Chapter One provides a qualitative survey of the empirical literature on the nexus among poverty, inequality and natural disasters. The last few years have seen an explosion of economic research on the consequences of natural disasters. This new interest is attributable first and foremost to a growing awareness of the potentially catastrophic nature of these events, but also a result of the increasing awareness that natural disasters are social and economic events. Here, we survey the literature that examines the direct and indirect impact of natural disaster events specifically on the poor and their impact on the distribution of income within affected communities and societies.
With a meta-regression analysis of the existing literature on the impacts of disasters on households in Chapter Two, we observe several general patterns. Incomes are clearly impacted adversely, with the impact observed specifically in per-capita measures. Consumption is also reduced, but to a lesser extent than incomes. Poor households appear to smooth their food consumption by reducing the consumption of non-food items; in particular health and education, and this suggests potentially long-term adverse consequences. Given the limits of our methodology and the paucity of research, we find no consistent patterns in long-term outcomes. We place disaster risk to the poor within the context of sustainable development and future climatic change.
Our objective In Chapter Three is to identify all of the directly observable determinants’ of publicly allocated and realized spending for disaster risk reduction (DRR) at the local government (sub-district) level in Bangladesh. We employ the Heckman two-stage selection model with detailed public finance and other data from 483 sub-districts (Upazilas) across the country. While some of our results conform with our priors, our estimations surprisingly find that government does not respond to the sub-district’s risk exposure as a factor affecting the DRR financing mechanism. This variable is consistently counter-intuitively statistically insignificant. The DRR regional allocations do not seem to be determined by risk and exposure, only weakly by vulnerability, nor even by more transparent political economy motivations.
In Chapter Four, we examine the short-run economic impacts of recurrent flooding on Bangladeshi households surveyed in 2000, 2005 and 2010. In 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), households answered a set of questions’ on whether they were affected by flood and its likely impacts. We identify two treatment (affected) groups by using the self-reported data and historical rainfall data based flood risk index. We estimate a difference-in-difference (DID) model to quantify the impacts on income, expenditure, asset and labour market outcomes and further extend our analysis to different income and expenditure brackets. Overall, we find robust evidence of negative impacts on agricultural income and expenditure. Intriguingly, the extreme poor (i.e. the bottom 15th quintile) experience significant positive impacts on agricultural income in the self-reported treatment case
The household response to persistent natural disasters: Evidence from Bangladesh
No full textWe examine the short-run economic impacts of recurrent flooding on Bangladeshi households surveyed in 2000, 2005 and 2010. In 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), households answered a set of questions’ on whether they were affected by flood and its likely impacts. We identify two treatment (affected) groups by using the self-reported data and historical rainfall data based flood risk index. We estimate a difference-indifference (DID) model to quantify the impacts on income, expenditure, asset and labour market outcomes and further extend our analysis to different income and expenditure brackets. Overall, we find robust evidence of negative impacts on agricultural income and expenditure. Intriguingly, the extreme poor (i.e. the bottom 15th quintile) experience significant positive impacts on agricultural income in the self-reported treatment case
A legal analysis on the punishment for death by negligence under the penal code in Malaysia / Sharifa Nurliliyana Abd Karim, Afzan Hanim Md Zahary and Arnie Azreen Che Arifin
Full text linkUnder Section 304A of Malaysia Penal Code it deals with the offence of causing death by negligence. Under this section, the amount of punishment provided is imprisonment of 2 years or fine or both. The problem with the available punishment is that, it is inadequate because the offence deals with the lives of another people, which will be endangered. Hence, it is not fair to simply provide for a punishment that is not proportionate with the offence. The purpose of carrying out this research is to look into further details regarding the existing punishment for the offence of causing death by negligence as in accordance with section 304A of the Penal Code of Malaysia, which was said to be inadequate. Comparisons are made between different countries, which involve United Kingdom (UK), India and Australia. This will help in assessing the appropriate amount of punishment that should be given to those offenders who commit the offence under this above-mentioned section. The conclusion obtained from this research is that the existing punishment for the offence of causing death by negligent under Section 304A of Penal Code should be amend in that a harsher punishment should be imposed towards the offenders
Does renewable energy increase farmers' well-being? Evidence from solar irrigation interventions in Bangladesh
No full textAs an alternative clean and climate-friendly energy source, renewable energy has gained increased importance in government policies, in particular regarding the use of sun power to operate irrigation projects. Researchers have found solar-power-based irrigation projects to be reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective, with higher rates of return, and recent studies have mostly focused on these outcomes. In the effort to ensure maximum electricity coverage in off-grid regions by 2041 and to achieve the global agenda of SDG 7, the Government of Bangladesh has recently prepared a draft policy to purchase unconsumed or surplus electricity from solar-run irrigation pumps (SIPs) across the country with the aim of promoting renewable energy, which further laid down the motivation for understanding the impacts of such interventions from the point of view of beneficiaries' well-being. Therefore, this paper particularly looks at the beneficial impacts of solar-powered irrigation using a recent survey of 1,000 solar-powered irrigation user and non-user farming households in selected regions of Bangladesh. Our regression results suggest that solar irrigation facilitates an adequate water supply and reduces the cost of production. However, the IV regression results suggest that SIPs do not significantly increase the agricultural return across all the seasons or plots. Overall, SIP adoption ensures reliability of the water supply (i.e., water adequacy) in addition to accessibility and affordability, implying longer-term implications for farmers' well-being
Poverty, inequality and natural disasters – A survey
No full textThe last few years have seen an explosion of economic research on the consequences of natural disasters. This new interest is attributable first and foremost to a growing awareness of the potentially catastrophic nature of these events, but also a result of the increasing awareness that natural disasters are social and economic events: their impact is shaped as much by the structure and characteristics of the countries they hit as by their physical characteristics. Here, we survey the literature that examines the direct and indirect impact of natural disaster events specifically on the poor and their impact on the distribution of income within affected communities and societies. We also discuss some of the lacunae in this literature and outline a future agenda of investigation
Poverty and natural disasters: A meta-analysis
No full textWe conduct a meta-regression analysis of the existing literature on the impacts of disasters on households, focusing on the poor and on poverty measures. We find much heterogeneity in these impacts, but several general patterns, often observed in individual case-studies, emerge. Incomes are clearly impacted adversely, with the impact observed specifically in per-capita measures (so it is not due to the mortality caused by the observed disaster). Consumption is also reduced, but to a lesser extent than incomes. Importantly, poor households appear to smooth their food consumption by reducing the consumption of non-food items; the most significant items in this category are spending on housing, health, and education. This suggests potentially long-term adverse consequences as consumption of these services is often better viewed as long-term investment. We do not find consistent patterns in long-term impacts; it appears the limits of the meta-regression methodology prevent us from observing patterns in the relatively few heterogeneous research projects that examine these long-term effects. The importance of addressing risk within the context of sustainable development and poverty alleviation is clear. The impact of disasters on the poor may be increasingly worrying considering the climate variations we anticipate
Poverty, inequality and natural disasters – A survey
No full textThe last few years have seen an explosion of economic research on the consequences of natural disasters. This new interest is attributable first and foremost to a growing awareness of the potentially catastrophic nature of these events, but also a result of the increasing awareness that natural disasters are social and economic events: their impact is shaped as much by the structure and characteristics of the countries they hit as by their physical characteristics. Here, we survey the literature that examines the direct and indirect impact of natural disaster events specifically on the poor and their impact on the distribution of income within affected communities and societies. We also discuss some of the lacunae in this literature and outline a future agenda of investigation
The (mis) allocation of public spending in a low income country: Evidence from disaster risk reduction spending in Bangladesh
No full textRational allocation of limited public resources is critical to achieve the stated aims of government programmes. Here, we focus on the regional allocation of public spending for disaster risk reduction in Bangladesh as a case study to identify the rationale that guides public funding allocations. It is well understood that any government’s public spending decision-making is also affected by considerations other than need, and our objective in this paper is to identify all of the directly observable determinants’ of publicly allocated and realized spending at the local government (sub-district) level. We employ the Heckman two-stage selection model with detailed public finance and other data from 483 sub-districts (upazilas) across the country. While some of our results conform with our priors, our estimations surprisingly find that government does not respond to the sub-district’s risk exposure as a factor affecting the DRR financing mechanism. This variable is consistently counter-intuitively negative and statistically significant. The DRR regional allocations do not seem to be determined by risk and exposure, only weakly by vulnerability, nor even by more transparent political economy motivations. This is surprising, as the Bangladesh DRR program is considered a poster-child of DRR investments
