BIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF FLOODPLAINS: FARMING VERSUS FISHING IN BANGLADESH

This paper explores the linkages of environment and economic development in the floodplain of large rivers. There is considerable evidence that even the most vital floodplains in the world are not being managed efficiently and both economic and ecological factors need to be considered for effective management. Floodplain management policies in Bangladesh emphasize structural changes to enhance agricultural production. However, these structural changes reduce fisheries production, where the fishery is an important natural resource sector and a source of subsistence for the rural poor. We develop a model where net returns to agriculture and fisheries are jointly maximized taking into account the effect of flooding depth and timing on production. Results for a region in Bangladesh show that optimal production in a natural floodplain yields higher net returns compared to a floodplain modified by flood control structures. This finding has important implications for management policies -- neglecting the bio-economic relationship between fisheries and land use may significantly affect the long-run economic role of a river floodplain, particularly in a poor country.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Social security health insurance for the informal sector in Nicaragua: a randomized evaluation

This article presents the results from an experimental evaluation of a voluntary health insurance program for informal sector workers in Nicaragua. Costs of the premiums as well as enrollment location were randomly allocated. Overall, take-up of the program was low, with only 20% enrollment. Program costs and streamlined bureaucratic procedures were important determinants of enrollment. Participation of local microfinance institutions had a slight negative effect on enrollment. One year later, those who received insurance substituted toward services at covered facilities and total out-of-pocket expenditures fell. However, total expenditures fell by less than the insurance premiums. We find no evidence of an increase in health-care utilization among the newly insured. We also find very low retention rates after the expiration of the subsidy, with less than 10% of enrollees still enrolled after one year. To shed light on the findings from the experimental results, we present qualitative evidence of institutional and contextual factors that limited the success of this program. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77966/1/1635_ftp.pd

Floodplain Resource Management: An Economic Analysis of *Policy Issues in Bangladesh

174 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.This dissertation investigates the tradeoffs between floodplain agriculture and fisheries production in the Brahmaputra river basin of Bangladesh, where both sectors are simultaneously affected by floodplain development policies. Our goal is to study the impact of development policies on these two sectors and to identify key factors that affect the sensitivity of results. Current floodplain management policies primarily include structural changes in the form of flood control, drainage and irrigation projects, which are designed to enhance agriculture production. These policies ignore the effects on the fisheries sector since it is not a commercially important sector. However, the fishery is an important natural resource sector and a source of subsistence for the rural poor. We develop a floodplain management model (FMM) where net returns to agriculture and fisheries are jointly maximized. The model accounts explicitly for the effect of floodplain area on fisheries production, where productivity is a function of the flood land type. These are derived from simulated annual hydrographs and the area-elevation relationship estimated for the study area. We developed a statistical methodology for simulating hydrographs based on Fourier analysis. The FMM is numerically solved using data from the Bangshi-Dhaleswari floodplain in the North-central region of Bangladesh. Results show that optimal production in a natural floodplain yield higher net returns than where the floodplain is modified by flood control structures. The conditions under which this is true are discussed. This finding has implications for floodplain management policies, which to date have the stated goal of increasing agricultural productivity only. Neglecting the fisheries sector may significantly affect the long-run sustainability of the floodplain. These quantitative findings need to be evaluated in the proper institutional context before policy recommendations are made, since local institutions play an important role in how resources are allocated in the floodplain.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

BIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF FLOODPLAINS: FARMING VERSUS FISHING IN BANGLADESH

This paper explores the linkages of environment and economic development in the floodplain of large rivers. There is considerable evidence that even the most vital floodplains in the world are not being managed efficiently and both economic and ecological factors need to be considered for effective management. Floodplain management policies in Bangladesh emphasize structural changes to enhance agricultural production. However, these structural changes reduce fisheries production, where the fishery is an important natural resource sector and a source of subsistence for the rural poor. We develop a model where net returns to agriculture and fisheries are jointly maximized taking into account the effect of flooding depth and timing on production. Results for a region in Bangladesh show that optimal production in a natural floodplain yields higher net returns compared to a floodplain modified by flood control structures. This finding has important implications for management policies -- neglecting the bio-economic relationship between fisheries and land use may significantly affect the long-run economic role of a river floodplain, particularly in a poor country