ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0928-0454
Current Organisations
Monash University - Caulfield Campus
,
Monash University
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-04-2017
DOI: 10.1111/PADR.12047
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2013
Publisher: Duke University Press
Date: 07-03-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S13524-015-0373-6
Abstract: This study estimates the causal effects of language proficiency on the economic and social integration of Australian immigrants. Identifying the effects of languages on socioeconomic outcomes is inherently difficult owing to the endogeneity of language skills. Using the phenomenon that younger children learn languages more easily than older children, we construct an instrumental variable for language proficiency. To achieve this, we consider the age at arrival of immigrants who came as children from Anglophone and non-Anglophone countries. We find a significant positive effect of English proficiency on wages and promotions among adults who immigrated to Australia as children. Higher levels of English proficiency are associated with increased risk-taking, more smoking, and more exercise for men, but have considerable health benefits for women. English language proficiency has a significant influence on partner choice and a number of social outcomes, as well as on children’s outcomes, including their levels of academic achievement. The results are robust to alternative specifications, including accounting for between-sibling differences and alternative measures of English skills.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2019
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-07-2021
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0255392
Abstract: This study examines the association between food insecurity and mental health of women during the COVID-19 pandemic in a resource poor setting. Data were collected at two time-points (wave 1 and 2) from 2402 women, one per household, participating in a larger study during extended COVID-19 lockdown in the rural areas of the southwest region of Bangladesh. The primary outcome of the analyses is the association between food insecurity, measured using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), and stress level, measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), for women during the lockdown. General awareness about COVID-19 and attitude towards prescribed preventive measures were also measured since COVID-19 health concerns could exacerbate food insecurity. An in idual-level evaluation of the effect of wave 2 FIES score on PSS score showed that worsening of the food security status increasing the stress level of the participants (95% CI: 1.61 2.13 p-value: .001). Additionally, a significant negative association was observed between the PSS score and change in food security status between the two waves (Coefficient: -1.15, 95% CI: -1.30 -0.99, p-value: .001), indicating that deterioration in food security status over the pandemic period increasing the stress level. At the village level, the results showed a similar pattern. General awareness around ways coronavirus spreads was high, yet there were misperceptions at a higher level. Maintaining hand hygiene, wearing face masks outside the home, and going outside only when necessary were widely practised. Fewer respondents could maintain a 1.5-metre distance from others in the outside and maintained cough and sneeze etiquette. The results indicate a higher stress level, a potential contributor to poor mental health, as food insecurity deteriorated. Policy initiatives in ameliorating immediate food insecurity during crises, improving long-term wellbeing, and expanding the reach of mental health support are warranted.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SOCSCIMED.2019.112497
Abstract: Survey measures of risk attitudes are primarily used in the health literature, although incentivized measures of risk preferences are being increasingly used in other fields. We exploit the unique setting of commercial female sex workers in Bangladesh to investigate whether incentivized measures of risk preferences, or non-incentivized survey measures of risk preferences, best identify the risky commercial sex decisions that they make. The study uses survey data collected during February-April 2016, and October-November 2016 from eight brothels in Bangladesh. Wave 1 includes 1,332 female sex workers, Wave 2 includes 1,185 female sex workers. Our findings suggest that researchers can reliably use survey measures to elicit risk preferences on health.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-02-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-07-2017
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1086/694930
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-03-2007
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2011
DOI: 10.1093/AJAE/AAR012
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-03-2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-04-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-06-2017
DOI: 10.1111/IREL.12182
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-01-2013
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2012
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 24-05-2012
Abstract: This study examines the economic returns to beauty and unprotected sex in the commercial sex market in Bangladesh. The results show that there is a beauty premium for commercial sex work, but it is within the bounds of the economic returns to beauty for women in occupations that do not involve sex work. We find that there is an earnings premium for sex workers who sell unprotected sex and that more attractive sex workers charge a higher premium for unprotected sex. This result is consistent with more attractive people being better placed to bargain with others and with male clients being more likely to overvalue the returns to immediate sexual gratification and to engage in risk taking activities in the presence of attractive sex workers. The results are robust to alternative empirical specifications.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 16-07-2019
DOI: 10.1002/HEC.3901
Abstract: We use randomized roommate assignment in dormitories in a college in Kolkata in India to examine peer effects in weight gains among roommates. We use administrative data on weight, height, and test scores of students at the time of college admission and then survey these students at the end of their first and second years in college. We do not find any significant roommate specific peer effect in weight gain. Our results rather suggest that an obese roommate reduces the probability that the other roommates become obese in subsequent years. We examine potential mechanism using survey data on students' eating habits, smoking, exercise, and sleeping patterns. We find that obese roommates sleep longer, which in turn improves the sleep pattern of others, which might explain the weak negative effect of obese roommates on the weight of others in the same room.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2007
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2016
DOI: 10.1111/IMIG.12236
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2015
DOI: 10.1002/HEC.3047
Abstract: How do fertility control policies contribute to the welfare of women, and their husbands, particularly as they get older? We consider whether the reduction in fertility resulting from population control policies has had any effect on the health of elderly parents in China. In particular, we examine the influence of this fertility decline, experienced due to China's one-child policy, on several measures of the health of parents in middle and old age. Overall, our results suggest that having fewer children has a positive effect on self-reported parental health but generally no effect on other measures of health. The results also suggest that upstream financial transfers have a positive effect on several measures of parental health.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 31-07-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.07.29.22278182
Abstract: We track the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in eight Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa, and South America utilizing repeated surveys of 21,162 in iduals. Many respondents were interviewed over multiple rounds pre- and post-pandemic, allowing us to control for time trends and within-year seasonal variation in mental health. We demonstrate how mental health fluctuates with agricultural crop cycles, deteriorating during pre-harvest “lean” periods. Ignoring this seasonal variation leads to unreliable inferences about the effects of the pandemic. Controlling for seasonality, we document a large, significant, negative impact of the pandemic on mental health, especially during the early months of lockdown. In a random effects aggregation across s les, depression symptoms increased by around 0.3 standard deviations in the four months following the onset of the pandemic. The pandemic could leave a lasting legacy of depression. Absent policy interventions, this could have adverse long-term consequences, particularly in settings with limited mental health support services, which is characteristic of many LMICs.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2021
DOI: 10.1111/IMIG.12914
Abstract: We examine the educational achievement of children of immigrants and native‐born parents in Australia, using nationally representative panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children linked to nationwide standardized examinations. The findings indicate that children of immigrants perform significantly better than children of native‐born Australians in five subjects and three grade levels. While this reflects Australia's shift towards skill‐based immigration policy, such a striking difference in performance based on the parents’ country of origin and/or linguistic background suggests a role for cultural capital. Further, children of Asian immigrant parents outperform children of parents from other countries of origin. Children with immigrant parents from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds outperform children of both English‐speaking immigrants and native‐born Australians. Using matching techniques, we compare children from similar backgrounds of native‐born and immigrant parents. The results suggest that unobservables such as differences in motivation could be driving the comparatively higher achievements of children of immigrants.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-02-2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-07-2020
DOI: 10.1111/IMIG.12618
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-06-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-07-2013
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
Publisher: Duke University Press
Date: 03-08-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S13524-018-0699-Y
Abstract: Parental bias toward children of a particular gender has been widely observed in many societies. Such bias could be due to pure gender preference or differences in earning opportunities and concern for old-age support. We conduct a high-stakes allocation task (subjects allocate the equivalent of one day’s wages between male and female school-aged students) in rural Bangladesh to examine parental attitudes toward male and female children. Parents, either jointly or in idually, allocated freely or restricted endowments for the benefit of anonymous girls or boys at a nearby school. We examine whether there is any systematic bias among fathers and mothers and, if so, whether such bias differs when they make the decision in idually or jointly. The results suggest (1) bias both for and against boys or girls but no systematic bias by either parent and (2) no significant differences in in idual and joint decisions.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 06-04-2023
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PMED.1004081
Abstract: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated mitigation policies created a global economic and health crisis of unprecedented depth and scale, raising the estimated prevalence of depression by more than a quarter in high-income countries. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) suffered the negative effects on living standards the most severely. However, the consequences of the pandemic for mental health in LMICs have received less attention. Therefore, this study assesses the association between the COVID-19 crisis and mental health in 8 LMICs. We conducted a prospective cohort study to examine the correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health in 10 populations from 8 LMICs in Asia, Africa, and South America. The analysis included 21,162 in iduals (mean age 38.01 years, 64% female) who were interviewed at least once pre- as well as post-pandemic. The total number of survey waves ranged from 2 to 17 (mean 7.1). Our in idual-level primary outcome measure was based on validated screening tools for depression and a weighted index of depression questions, dependent on the s le. S le-specific estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between COVID-19 periods and mental health were estimated using linear regressions with in idual fixed effects, controlling for independent time trends and seasonal variation in mental health where possible. In addition, a regression discontinuity design was used for the s les with multiple surveys conducted just before and after the onset of the pandemic. We aggregated s le-specific coefficients using a random-effects model, distinguishing between estimates for the short (0 to 4 months) and longer term (4+ months). The random-effects aggregation showed that depression symptoms are associated with a increase by 0.29 standard deviations (SDs) (95% CI [−.47, −.11], p -value = 0.002) in the 4 months following the onset of the pandemic. This change was equivalent to moving from the 50th to the 63rd percentile in our median s le. Although aggregate depression is correlated with a decline to 0.21 SD (95% CI [−0.07, −.34], p -value = 0.003) in the period thereafter, the average recovery of 0.07 SD (95% CI [−0.09, .22], p -value = 0.41) was not statistically significant. The observed trends were consistent across countries and robust to alternative specifications. Two limitations of our study are that not all s les are representative of the national population, and the mental health measures differ across s les. Controlling for seasonality, we documented a large, significant, negative association of the pandemic on mental health, especially during the early months of lockdown. The magnitude is comparable (but opposite) to the effects of cash transfers and multifaceted antipoverty programs on mental health in LMICs. Absent policy interventions, the pandemic could be associated with a lasting legacy of depression, particularly in settings with limited mental health support services, such as in many LMICs. We also demonstrated that mental health fluctuates with agricultural crop cycles, deteriorating during “lean”, pre-harvest periods and recovering thereafter. Ignoring such seasonal variations in mental health may lead to unreliable inferences about the association between the pandemic and mental health.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2008
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-02-2009
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-04-2023
Abstract: We conduct an experiment to determine competitiveness among shrimpers who engage in collecting shrimp seeds in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. We then examine how competitiveness affects the labour supply decisions and labour market performance of these shrimpers. Our results show that shrimpers who prefer competition are more productive than shrimpers who do not prefer competition. Competitive shrimpers secure better prices and earn higher incomes selling their catches. We estimate that their wage elasticity of participation ranges from 0.4 to 0.5, which is consistent with preferences under neoclassical assumptions. Competitive shrimpers have a slightly greater wage elasticity than non‐competitive shrimpers, suggesting that they might be more responsive to expected earnings. Our results have important policy implications for the efficient management of common pool resources.
No related grants have been discovered for Asadul Islam.