Browsing by Author "Ahsanuzzaman"

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    Children’s vulnerability to natural disasters: Evidence from natural experiments in Bangladesh
    (Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2019-12) Ahsanuzzaman; Islan, Muhammad Q.
    Both developed and developing countries face natural disasters, but it is the poor areas in developing countries, particularly women and children, that are most affected by those disasters in terms of loss of lives and livelihoods. If the predictions climate change models bear out, Bangladesh could be affected by frequent and severe natural disasters such as the rise in sea level leading to floods, cyclones, etc. Natural disasters adversely affect employment opportunities and earnings of the most vulnerable households. Loss of employment and earnings can affect the nutritional intake of children in natural disaster affected regions. Since nutritional status in the early age of 0-60 months of a child determines the cognitive ability and other developments, hindrances that affect nutritional supply and result in low nutritional intake can have adverse lifetime effects on children affected by such events. Consequently, the frequency and severity of natural disasters due to climate change have intergenerational effects. In this study, we examine the effects of natural disasters – specifically, cyclones Sidr and Aila - on children’s nutritional status in Bangladesh. We estimate the nutritional status of children below 60-months age who had been exposed to those extreme events in November 2007 and May 2009. Results show that children who had been exposed to such an extreme climate events from sometime in utero to newborn stages suffer significant reduction in height for age Z score and are more likely to be stunted and underweight. This is particularly important as among other nutritional outcome indicators, height for age Z score is regarded as a measure of the long-term consequence of nutritional intake. Our findings suggest that even a single extreme event such as super cyclone Sidr can exert long term detrimental effects to hinder development of children of a generation exposed to such disasters.
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    Is there a potential market for seaweed? A framed field experiment on consumer acceptance
    (Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2019-12) Li, Tongzhe; Ahsanuzzaman; Messer, Kent D.
    Novel foods, such as seaweed, often meet resistance in consumer markets even though their cultivation can largely benefit the environment. Therefore, research in consumer acceptance is needed before launching a novel food product into the market. We use a framed field experiment to investigate U.S. consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for three seaweed products – seaweed salad, kelp noodles, and a seaweed snack. The results suggest that there is a potential market for seaweed food products in the United States as 35% of participants chose to purchase at least one seaweed product. Demographic variables matter in consumers’ choices. For instance, we found a negative WTP premium for female shoppers and primary household shoppers and a positive WTP premium for individuals who had a higher level of education and who were interested in improving the healthfulness of their diets.
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    Is this Food “Local?” Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment
    (Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2019-04) Li, Tongzhe; Ahsanuzzaman; Messer, Kent
    In the marketplace, consumers often see foods labeled as “local.” But laws regarding what foods can be labeled as local vary, and how consumers perceive the definition of such labels has received little attention. To study this question, we designed a framed field experiment that took advantage of the small distances in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and oyster harvesting locations. In this novel study, consumers were presented with purchase decisions for a food that could be accurately characterized by multiple definitions of the term local, some definitions based on mileage and others on political boundaries. We analyze responses from 374 adult consumers to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for oysters labeled as local using these various definitions. We find that consumers are responsive to the label definitions. Consumers are less willing to pay for local oysters defined as harvested within 400 miles (the USDA definition of a local food) than for local oysters harvested within 100 miles and 25 miles. Consumers’ WTP increases when local is defined as being harvested in a region associated with the same state of the purchase decision than when harvested in an adjacent state. Interestingly, the highest WTP is when no specific definition of local is provided to consumers.
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    Motorists’ willingness to drive through flooded roads: Evidence from a stated preference experiment
    (Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2020-06) Ahsanuzzaman; Messer, Kent D.
    We conduct a stated-preference choice experiment to reveal motorists’ driving-related behavioral responses to different types of signs indicating that the road is flooded and travel costs associated with avoidance of the flooded road. We use three flood-indicating visualization treatments and control group to identify the effects of particular road signs and identify associations between drivers’ behavior and their demographic characteristics and the cost (time) of taking an alternate route. Using responses from 714 adult participants, we estimate willingness to drive additional minutes to avoid flooded roads using a random utility framework. Our results suggest that individuals are more likely to avoid flooded roads when shown flood-indicating road signs that do not indicate the exact depth of the water and signs that indicate that the water is relatively deep (more than 12 inches). We further find that individuals tend to persist in their initial choices. They often make risky choices when high risk indicating information is presented at the beginning of the decision-making process.