Working Papers
Mobile Money Spillovers and Misallocation in Informal Risk Sharing
Working paper
Rural households in developing countries use labor migration as a strategy to insure themselves against exogenous shocks. With the introduction of mobile money technology, remittances from migrants are now available to these households at a cheaper and faster rate. Previous literature finds that mobile money use does not fully insure against shocks, but there is no explanation as to why this insurance is incomplete. I argue that rural households simultaneously use two insurance technologies: risk pooling within their own village, and labor migration. Mobile money lowers the transaction cost of the migrant channel, inducing households to substitute away from the village pool toward external remittances. This substitution generates a negative externality, as households under-invest in the pool relative to the social optimum. Using a quasi-experimental design with three waves of panel data from rural Bangladesh, I estimate the causal effect of mobile money adoption on consumption smoothing after flood shocks. I find that mobile money users experience 1.1 percent greater consumption loss per standard deviation increase in flood intensity relative to non-users, rising to 2.8 percent relative to households in villages with no mobile money penetration. I find new evidence that the misallocation extends beyond adopters, as non-adopting households in mobile money villages suffer comparable consumption losses after flood shocks, due to pool thinning with no compensating remittance gain. The findings suggest that policies to increase mobile money use in rural areas should accompany incentives to participate in the village pool, to correct the misallocation.
The Macroeconomic Impacts of Zombie Houses
With A.K.M Mahbub Morshed · Working paper
Tax Filing among Gig Workers: Evidence from a Korean Digital Tax Platform
With Soo Jeong Lee, Minsoo Park · Working paper
A related study written in Korean is available [PDF]: "How Do Online Tax Platforms Improve Consumer Welfare?" (온라인 세무 플랫폼은 소비자 후생을 어떻게 개선하는가?)
Work in Progress
The Impact of Refugee Camps on the Mental Health of Host Communities
Work in progress (Working paper coming soon!)
In August 2017, conflict in neighboring Myanmar caused a massive influx of Rohingya refugees in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh, who are hosted in one of the most densely populated refugee camps in the world. Using geo-referenced data on refugee camps from UNHCR, and the Cox's Bazar Panel Survey from 2019 to 2023, I study how refugee camp exposure impacts the mental health of the host communities. I identify exposure to nearby hosts using variation in road quality, distance to camps and the camp refugee population over time. Results indicate that higher refugee exposure increases probability of depression and the severity of depression symptoms. To untangle the mechanisms through which host mental health deteriorates, I look at the labor market channel, and find that majority of the mental health declines can be explained by loss of jobs and working hours. I further find that men and older hosts face the worst mental health declines. The empirical evidence has important implications for refugee hosting policies in developing countries, while providing new empirical evidence on the psychosocial value of employment and men's mental health.
Empowered without Paid Work: Evidence from Male Migration and Left-Behind Wives in Bangladesh
Work in progress (Working paper coming soon!)
In rural areas, labor migration is mostly male, and the wife usually stays behind in the village. I study how the husband's absence changes the work and time of the wife left behind, and whether it changes the decisions she makes. I use three-period panel data on left-behind wives in Bangladesh, and compare them before and after their husband migrates. I find that the husband's migration lowers the wife's total work by 33 minutes a day, mostly through less housework, and she works on fewer days in income-generating activities. The fall in income-generating work is larger when the husband sends more money, suggesting that remittances act as a disincentive for her own labor supply. When the husband migrates, the wife gains both free time and a stronger say in the household, so her welfare improves even without more income-generating work.
Publications
Journal Articles
Fostering Sustainable Tourism through Digital Innovation and Green Tourism Initiatives in Bangladesh
With Sakib Amin, Farhan Khan, Bismi Iqbal, Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary · Sustainable Futures, 2025
Renewable Energy Development in Bangladesh: The Role of Oil Price, Macroeconomic Factors and Policies
With Sakib Amin, Farhan Khan · Energy Reports, 2024
Cooperative Environmental Governance in Urban South Asia: Implications for Municipal Waste Management and Waste-to-Energy
With Sakib Amin, Farhan Khan, Juhi Jannat, Shah Rahman · Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2023
Unfolding FDI, Renewable Energy Consumption, and Income Inequality Nexus: Heterogeneous Panel Analysis
With Sakib Amin, Farhan Khan, Yaron Amin, Faria Rahman · Energies, 2022
Book Chapters
Green Finance Policies to Accelerate the Economic Recovery in ASEAN Countries
With Sakib Amin, Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, Juhi Jannat, Farhan Khan · In Post-Pandemic Green Recovery in ASEAN, Routledge, 2023
Institutional and Regulatory Requirements for Innovative Fintech Market in Bangladesh: Why Do They Matter?
With Sakib Amin, Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, Juhi Jannat, Farhan Khan · In Innovative Finance for Technological Progress, Routledge, 2022
Other Work
UN ESCAP Project: Digital and Transport Connectivity for the Socioeconomic Resilience of Rural Communities during the Post-COVID-19 Period in Asia-Pacific Countries
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), jointly implemented by its ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division and Transport Division · Funded by the UN Development Account · Bangladesh, Lao PDR, and Samoa
White paper output: Critical Analysis of ICT Connectivity in Rural Bangladesh: Importance, Constraints, and the Way Forward (APIS Working Paper Series, UN ESCAP, 2024) · ESCAP Repository
Energy Access in the Mountain Areas and Its Implication for Women's Empowerment in Bangladesh
North South University Research Grant NSU CTRG-22-SBE-18 · PI: Sakib Amin
Tourism, Waste Management Issues and the Sustainable Challenges: Bangladesh Experiences
North South University Research Grant NSU CTRG-21-SBE-39 · PI: Sakib Amin