Essays on economic development and environmental sustainability

• Main Author: Ray, Rohan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: economic development; education; health; environmental sustainability; Environmental Policy; Growth and Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/352; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=etd_coll
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The first chapter is a randomized controlled trial study that uses loss framing and information nudges to increase secondary school attendance in Bangladesh. Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) have become one of the most common policy interventions to increase school attendance, but the cost-effectiveness of such interventions has not attracted the attention it deserves. Hence, in addition to a standard CCT implementation, our rich unique dataset on daily attendance allows us to experimentally study two potential ways to improve the cost-effectiveness of school attendance interventions: (i) SMS information nudges and (ii) loss framing in CCTs. The former provides school attendance information to parents and the latter exploits the endowment effect. Consistent with the existing literature, CCT intervention significantly increases school attendance. Though the difference between gain and loss framing is not statistically significant, the point estimate of the Loss treatment is consistently higher than that of the Gain treatment. The SMS treatment has a modest impact on school attendance but the overall cost of treatment is low. We also find diminishing marginal impact of cash transfer amount on attendance, indicating that the intensive margin matters. Thus, both loss framing and SMS nudges can be considered as alternative cost-effective approaches to promote attendance in schools in developing and less developed economies. In the second chapter, I study the causal impact of alcohol consumption on incidence of intimate partner violence in the Indian context. A study by the World Health Organization shows that about 35% of women in the world have been victims of physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Using an overidentified model where I exploit the spatial variation in alcohol ban and minimum legal drinking age across states in India to instrument for the husband's alcohol consumption, I find that alcohol consumption by the husband increases incidence of less severe physical violence by 55 percentage points and severe physical violence for women by 23.6 percentage points, and also has negative consequences on women empowerment in general. I further show that the results are not driven by worse gender attitudes in states where alcohol is allowed. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that there is a vicious cycle of intimate partner violence whereby individuals who are the most vulnerable in terms of having previous exposure to domestic abuse or residing in poorly constructed houses are often the victims. The third chapter explores the causal impact of the mid day meal program on parental investment in education for primary school going children in India. Using the first round of the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) and exploiting the staggered implementation of the mid day meal program across different states in India, we find that the amount spent on school fees reduces significantly by 16 percent for children who are eligible to receive the mid day meal. The significant decrease in school fees can, in part, be attributed to transfer of children from private to government schools. We further find that such transfers do not lead to any improvement in learning or health outcomes. However, there is no evidence of gender discrimination in school expenditures that might adversely affect the girl child. The fourth chapter outlines Singapore’s major sustainability challenges and its policy response in the areas of land use, transportation, waste management, water, and energy. We review the current and past Concept Plans from the perspective of sustainable land use and provide an overview of transportation policy in Singapore. We also examine Singapore’s policies to manage increasing wastes and review the four tap water management plan. Finally, we look at various initiatives by the government for sustainable use of energy. We discuss the opportunities that new technologies will bring about and the role that Singapore can play in building a sustainable city.