Maternal empowerment and child malnutrition in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

The study examines the importance of maternal empowerment in reducing the prevalence of child malnutrition in Bangladesh. Maternal empowerment is measured by a composite index based on four proxy variables that promote maternal empowerment. Factor analysis technique is used in constructing empowerment index. Ordered probit models are specified and estimated using national-level household survey data. Maternal empowerment is found to be the third-most important predictor of child malnutrition in Bangladesh, preceded by maternal endowment and child characteristics. Household characteristics such as partner’s level of education and household income are also associated with child malnutrition. The study has a number of policy implications to address maternal empowerment and child malnutrition. Public policy should focus on factors of maternal empowerment and investment in maternal health in order to improve the health of the next generation.     

Evaluation of risk communication for rural water supply management: a case study of a coastal area of Bangladesh

Consumption of safe drinking water is an important public health issue. In this study, we considered the risk communication topic of human health concerns related to unsafe water consumption in rural coastal areas of Bangladesh, where potable water is scarce. Our objective was to investigate the level of knowledge that rural residents had concerning safe water consumption and to evaluate the effects of risk communication on knowledge and behavior changes. We considered four rural villages of southwest coastal areas of Bangladesh as sample. This study was based on the results of a questionnaire survey administered before and after risk communication. The pre- and post-survey were conducted during August 2009 and March 2010, respectively. Data were collected from 120 women aged 18–60 years. Two format presentations, with and without water quality information, were used to convey the risk messages. In the present study, indicator bacterial (Escherichia coli) contamination levels in drinking water sources were considered as water quality information since absence of E. coli is the safety margin for the detection of disease-causing organisms. Analysis of the survey data revealed that risk communication can be vital to changes in water consumption knowledge and behavior. Overall general knowledge scores were almost same in the pre-survey for without- (mean score 3.16) and with-information (mean score 3.10) villages. However, after risk communication, there were detectable increases in the mean scores (mean scores, 3.54 and 3.64, respectively, on a 4 point scale) for both groups. Furthermore, risk communication with water quality information appears to be a more effective method of risk communication. Dissemination of risk messages was also higher in with-information villages. Seventy four percent of the participants from with-information villages reported that they had discussed the risk messages with family members and neighbors, compared to 59% of those from without-information villages. The results of this study revealed that age, education, and distance of water sources influence changes in consumption and maintenance behavior. These findings suggest that, in addition to installation of water supply facilities, there is a need to address the low levels of knowledge about safe water consumption in rural coastal communities of Bangladesh. Location specific water quality information may be more useful to convey health risk messages concerning unsafe drinking water consumption.     

Remittances and investment nexus in Bangladesh: an ARDL bounds testing approach

Bangladesh is the 8th largest remittance recipient country in the world and one of the heavily dependent (11 % of GDP) countries of remittances. Despite its importance in policy making in developing countries like Bangladesh, there is absence of any study regarding the effect of remittances on the level of investment. In an attempt to fill the gap, we examine the cointegrating property and stability of the relationship among these variables using the ARDL bounds testing approach combined with CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests. Our findings show that both remittances and trade openness positively and significantly influence the level of investment in Bangladesh, meaning that contrary to most conclusions found in the literature, migrant remittances in developing countries are not entirely spent in basic consumption needs. We also find that foreign aid has very little and insignificant impact on investment. Finally, we find long-run unidirectional causal relationship running from remittances to investment indicating that favorable policies to increase the flow of remittance will promote investment in Bangladesh.     

Determinants of housing price volatility in Canada: a dynamic analysis

This article tries to identify the determinants of housing price volatility and to examine the dynamic effects of these determinants on volatility using quarterly data for Canada. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (GARCH) and the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models have been employed to analyse possible time variation of the housing price volatility and the interactions between the volatility and the key macroeconomic variables. We find the evidence of time varying housing price volatility for Canada. Our VAR, Granger causality and variance decomposition (VDC) analyses demonstrate that housing price volatility is affected significantly by gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, housing price appreciation rate and inflation. On the other hand, volatility affects GDP growth rate, housing price appreciation and volatility itself. The impulse response analysis reveals the asymmetric of the positive and negative shocks. The findings of this article have important implications, particularly for those seeking to develop derivatives for housing market prices.     

Interest rate,size and book-to-market effects in Australian financial firms

The Fama–French three-factor model (1993) has been extensively used to study the pricing of nonfinancial stocks. This study provides the first examination of the pricing of Australian financial stocks using the Fama–French framework. The four-factor model (market, size, book-to-market and momentum) augmented with the level, slope and curvature of the interest rate term structure is used to examine the pricing of Australian financial stocks. The interest rate factors have not been previously considered for pricing Australian stocks within the Fama–French framework. Consistent with US evidence, we use a system-based estimation to show that the size and book-to-market factors are not priced in the cross section of the equity returns of Australian financial stocks. Momentum and term spread are priced in the equity returns of both financial and nonfinancial stocks. These findings are robust to the inclusion of control variables such as default spread, the inflation rate and a dummy variable for the global financial crisis.     

Women empowerment and infant mortality in Bangladesh

This study attempts to investigate the effects of women empowerment on infant mortality in Bangladesh. Four indicators have been considered to measure four dimensions of women empowerment: the level of education, participation in household (HH) decisions, autonomy in movements and employment status. The rotated factor analysis technique is used to construct the last three dimensions. The Weibull parametric survival model has been specified and estimated using the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data of 2011. The results show that three measures of empowerment (the level of education, participation in HH decisions and autonomy in movements) contribute significantly to the reduction of infant mortality. But women employment is associated with increased mortality for infants. The findings of this study have a number of policy implications on this issue for a developing country like Bangladesh.     

Remittances and output in Bangladesh: an ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration

Although the relationship between remittances and output is still inconclusive in literature, most studies find that remittances have a positive effect on output in the long run. Contrary to this conventional direction of causality from remittances to output, our study finds that output alone determined long-run movements in remittances in a positive direction in the Bangladesh economy over the last 35 years from 1976 to 2010. We use the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration to explore this long-run relationship. Surprisingly, remittances do not appear to be a long-run forcing variable to the explanation of Bangladesh’s output over the same period. While examining the channels of this output–remittance mechanism remains an area of research for the future, we hypothesize that the rise in remittances in response to increased income occurs through higher import demand and greater investment opportunities. This finding implies that Bangladeshi policymakers can influence remittances through national output in the long run.     

Antecedents of importer relationship performance in Latin America

Emerging market importers are increasingly engaging in relationships with foreign suppliers. Nevertheless, characteristics of the institutional and cultural environments of countries may affect relationship behavior. Furthermore, research on relationship marketing primarily focuses on the marketing activities of exporters from developed countries and much less attention is paid to the import side of the exchange process. Thus, the objective of this study is to empirically examine importer relationship performance in a Latin American context. This article proposes and tests a conceptual model that includes the antecedents and outcomes of trust and commitment with a survey of Chilean importers. The model uses confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to develop the construct measures and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the model. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the driving forces of trust and commitment and their influence on importing firms' performance in an emerging market context.