On-Going Research
Papers under review
(1) School Drop-out and Seasonality: Ramadan School Holidays as a Natural Experiment in Bangladesh (With Seiro Ito).
BLOG mention: World Bank
Media Mention: BBC/ABC News
(3) Fertility and Rural Electrification in Bangladesh (with Tomoki Fujii).
(4) DVD-based Distance-learning Program for University Entrance Exams: RCT Experiments in Rural Bangladesh (With Yasuyuki Sawada and Hisaki Kono)
Media Mention: TBS TV Channel in JAPAN
(5) Impact of Political Protests (Strikes) on Manufacturing Firms: Evidence from Bangladesh (with Kenmai Tsubota).
Media Mention: Financial Express in Bangladesh
(6) Spending and Absorption of Aid in PRGF Supported Programs (With Berndt Markus, Paolo Dudine and Jan Kees Martijn)
IMF Working Paper WP/08/237. (2008) [pdf]
(7) The Dynamics of Spending and Absorption of Aid: Panel Data Analysis. IDE Discussion Paper 245.
Working Papers
(2) The Bangladesh Gender Gap in Education: Biased Intra-household Educational Expenditures
(with Mehnaz Rabbani). IDE Discussion Paper 522
(3) Partition, Independence, and Population Geography in Bengal (with Kenmei Tsubota).
(4) Evaluation of a Targeted Private Sector Skill Training Program in Bangladesh (with Selim Raihan).
IDE Discussion Paper 581
R4D Working Paper 2016/11 (Swiss Program for Research on Global Issues for Development)
(5) Impact of Community Characteristics on Child Health Status: Evidence from Bangladesh (with Shirajum Munira).
(6) A Theoretical Note on Seasonal Migration.
Research In Progress
(1) Mobile Banking and Remittances Among Garment Workers in Bangladesh: An Experimental Study
(with Jonathan Morduch, Jean Lee and Hassan Zaman) [Analysis stage]
Media Attention: New Age (Bangladesh), Financial Express (Bangladesh), Bonik Barta (Bengali Newspaper, Bangladesh).
(2) Reducing Extreme Poverty through Skill Training for Industry Job Placement
(with Selim Raihan and Tomoki Fujii) [Analysis Stage]
Policy Brief from IZA|GLM.
Policy Brief: IGC Bangladesh
Blog Post: IGC Global
Media Attention: Financial Express, The Daily Star
(3) Mistargated Subsidy Triggering Outage Inequality? A Detailed Load-shedding and Blackout Analysis of Dhaka City
(with Mushfiq Mobarak) [Analysis Stage]
(4) Value of Political Affiliation in the Dhaka Stock Exchange
(with Filippo Sebastio). [Analysis stage]
(5) Research on The Marketing and Willingness-to-pay Study of Solar Lantern in Rural Bangladesh
(with Kazushi Takahashi and Yuya Kudo) [Analysis Stage]
(6) Determinants of Demand and Repayment in Microcredit Lending Groups in Rural Bangladesh
(with Kristina Czura and Simeon Schudy). [Data collection completed]
(7) Reducing Ultra Poverty with Packaged Micro-finance, A Field Experiment
(with Seiro Ito, Kazushi Takahashi and Takashi Kurosaki) [Data collection completed]
(8) Credit for Share-croppers: RCT Experiment in Bangladesh
(with Hisaki Kono and Kazushi Takahashi) [Data collection stage]
(9) Economic Division in British India: An Analysis of Population Dynamics
(with Kenmei Tsubota). [Data collection stage]
(10) Impact of Political Protests: A Case Study on Bangladesh
(with Kenmei Tsubota, Kazi Iqbal, Mohammad Moinul Hoque). [Data collection stage]
(11) Incentivizing School Attendance in Bangladesh: A Loss Aversion Conditional Cash Transfer Design
(with Tomoki Fujii and Christine Ho). [Pilot stage]
(12) Improving Hygiene Practice Using a Mobile Phone Based Platform: The Case in Bangladesh
(with Reshmaan Hussam and Chikako Yamauchi). [Pilot stage]
Research Grants
(1) IDE Research Grant under the scheme of ``New Strategies of Nations and Firms for Sustainable Development" (with Takashi Kurosaki) 2011-12 (USD 100,000) Principal Investigator
(2) IDE Research Grant on ``Impacts of periodic flood on the socio-economic conditions of people living in river islands in North-West Bangladesh: a Natural Experiment approach with Panel data" (with Seiro Ito) 2012-13 (USD 150,000) Principal Investigator
(3) Grant-in-aid Scientific Research A/B funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science on ``Impacts of "packaged" micro-credit on the ultra poor as an alternative to micro-credit, an RCT experiment in the river islands of Northern Bangladesh" (With Seiro Ito, Kazushi Takahashi and Takashi Kurosaki) 2012-13 (USD 170,000)
(4) University of Tokyo grant on ``Impact of E-education on university admission exams in Bangladesh" (With Yasuyuki Sawada and Hisaki Kono).
(5) Grant-in-aid Scientific Research A/B funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science on ``Improvement of the project design of poverty reduction policies: By using randomized controlled trials and structure estimation" (With Yasuyuki Sawada, Hisaki Kono and Kazushi Takahashi) USD 270,000
(6) IDE Research Grant on ``An Evidence-Based Study of the Innovative Anti-Poverty Practices and Market Institutions" (with Yuya Kudo and Kazushi Takahashi) USD 170,000
(7) IDRC Research Grant on ``Changing labour markets in Bangladesh: Understanding dynamics in relation to economic growth and poverty" (lead by Selim Raihan). 2013-2015 (USD 400,000)
(8) IZA/DFID Growth and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries Programme (GLM | LIC) Phase II ``Reducing Extreme Poverty through Skill Training for Industry Job Placement" (with Selim Raihan) 2013-2016 (EUR 350,000) Principal Investigator
Grant Page [IZA|GLM]
(9) IDE Research Grant on ``Impact of rural electrification on fertility in Bangladesh" (with Tomoki Fujii) 2014-2015 (USD 50,000) Principal Investigator
(10) International Growth Center (IGC) Grant on ``Understanding Blackout", Bangladesh round 2014-2015 (GBP 10,000) Principal Investigator
(11) The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI)} titled ``Risk Preferences, Time Preferences, and Willingness-to-Pay with Mobile Money versus Cash in Bangladesh" (with Jean Lee) 2014-2015 (USD 20,000)
(12) The Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme) titled ``Employment effects of different development policy instruments: Bangladesh" (with Selim Raihan) (CHF 100,000)
(13) International Growth Center (IGC) Grant on ``Training Program for RMG sector: Long-term impact" with (Tomoki Fujii and Christopher Woodruff) (GBP 70,000.00) Principal Investigator
(14) University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) grant on ``Lab-in-the-field experiments for product demand and group aspects in microlending" (With Kristina Czura and Simeon Schudy) Euro 20,000.
(15) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC, (435-2013-1913)) Insight Grants, University of Ottawa ``Information and Communication technology in adult literacy classes: Effectiveness and Empowerment impacts from three continents" (with Christopher Ksoll, Annemie J. Maertens and Alain Desrochers).
(16) Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University research grant on ``Evaluating the Impact of Microcredit Schemes Targeted towards the Ultra-Poor in the River Islands of Northern Bangladesh" (with Seiro Ito, Kazushi Takahashi and Takashi Kurosaki) JPY 100,000
(17) Singapore Management University research grant (with Tomoki Fujii and Christine Ho) SGD 10,000.