This paper utilizes the third wave of Nepal Living Standard Survey to assess the causal impact of parental absence and remittances on educational investment of children left behind. Unlike previous studies, we separately identify parental... more
This paper utilizes the third wave of Nepal Living Standard Survey to assess the causal impact of parental absence and remittances on educational investment of children left behind. Unlike previous studies, we separately identify parental absence and remittances with careful consideration of self-selection into migration and endogeniety of remittances. Using two-step estimation strategy, we show that parental absence has substantive disruptive effect on child education while remittances has positive effect. In addition, we also show that non-parental absence has negative effect on education but effects are not significant. Further, we provide supporting evidence about the channels to disruption. Finally, we also show some heterogeneity results by child gender and mother's education. The results by child gender confirm that remittance relaxes liquidity constraint of households by investing on girl’s education. Further, the results by mother education provide evidence that educated mother can play a role to neutralize or mitigate the negative effects of parental absence.
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There have been rising concerns on growing magnitude of Underground Economy in most of the economies irrespective of their state of development. The problem is more apparent in developing economies where legal and institutional... more
There have been rising concerns on growing magnitude of Underground Economy in most of the economies irrespective of their state of development. The problem is more apparent in developing economies where legal and institutional arrangements are relatively weaker. This study attempts to estimate empirically the size of Underground Economy in Nepal. We use an indirect method of customized version of Currency Demand Method to measure the same and find that its coverage has been increasing throughout in the last two decades with the most alarming increment in the last two fiscal years 2011and 2012. We attribute these increments particularly to the 1996-2006 armed conflict; the increasing cases of economic and financial crimes; and a large informal sector.
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We attempt to analyze the reasons to low adult immunization from the willingness to pay perspective in the peri-urban setting of Kathmandu Valley where some private health facilities had organized Hepatitis B Vaccine Health camps in the... more
We attempt to analyze the reasons to low adult immunization from the willingness to pay perspective in the peri-urban setting of Kathmandu Valley where some private health facilities had organized Hepatitis B Vaccine Health camps in the recent past. We reason the existence of regulated Hepatitis B Vaccine market in Nepal and thereby utilize an open ended question to assess the willingness to pay of an unimmunized adult. We justify the application of the two-part model in the study and further show that the socio-economic and demographic variables do not play significant role in explaining the low adult immunization except for age and employment. The result further reveals that people do not care to pay more for vaccination at present unless they apprehend the risk of suffering from disease with the disease specific symptoms or some history of chronic diseases. We argue that people exhibit time inconsistent - present biased preferences in immunization practices. The small preventive costs incurred to them on immunization today appear very large relative to the economic benefits realized tomorrow. There still exists asymmetric information so far as understanding the importance of the vaccine and its right/proper usage are concerned; a strong case of informing people to perceive vaccination as a preventive lifesaving shot thus becomes essential.
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The present study aims to assess the poverty levels of the various indigenous groups in Nepal. It was developed to address the lack of existing disaggregated data and statistics on the socio-economic status of Nepal’s many indigenous... more
The present study aims to assess the poverty levels of the various indigenous groups in Nepal. It was developed to address the lack of existing disaggregated data and statistics on the socio-economic status of Nepal’s many indigenous groups. By presenting data on a broad set of socio-economic indicators for the many indigenous groups in Nepal and comparing this with data on other major caste and ethnic groups, the study analyzes each indigenous group’s quality of life, poverty level, and the extent to which each group is benefiting from the country’s existing development schemes. The ultimate goal is to provide a reference point for the development of more inclusive laws, policies, and programs that effectively identify and address the needs of Nepal’s indigenous peoples.