Session Chairs and Discussants

Session 1: Gender Issues

Chair: Gayatri Bhattacharya, University of Calcutta, India
Discussants:
Shikha Silwal
Samyukta Ghimire

Session 2: Environment and Climate Change

Chair: Andrew Nelson, University of North Texas, USA
Discussants:
Vinod Kumar Bhardwaj
Wenmei Guo
Soumi Roy Chowdhury
Keshav Bhattarai

Session 3: Poverty Alleviation

Chair: Sikha Silwal, Washington and Lee University, USA
Discussants:
Mukti Upadhayay
Damodharan Rajasenan
Udaya Wagle
Nusrat Farah
Vinod Kumar Bhardwaj

Session 4: Education, Identity and Migration

Chair: Keshav Bhattarai, University of Central Missouri, USA
Discussants:
Vijaya Sharma
Andrew Nelson
Mukti Upadhyay
Abstracts

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2014
Thursday, October 16th
12:00 AM

Dynamics of poverty and household economic development among the socially excluded groups in the bio-diversity hotspot of Wayanad, Kerala

D. Rajasenan, CSSEIP

12:00 AM

The study tries to establish a linkage between poverty and historical factors with high prominence on material assets as well socio-cultural advantages. Once this is established, the role of institutional interventions that have a profound influence on the entry into and exit from poverty of households and individuals is analyzed. This is done to identify poverty at three different levels: individual, household and community. The spiraling dynamic propagation of poverty is embedded with a vector of inter-linked factors.

Full Proceedings

Nepal Study Center

12:00 AM

Impact of household and demographic characteristics on poverty in Bangladesh: A logistic regression analysis

Nusrat Farah, Eastern Illinois University

12:00 AM

This paper examines the determinants of poverty in Bangladesh. Poverty is multi-dimensional in nature and depends on interactions of various socio-economic factors. Several demographic and health factors can shape up the economic status of a household, and theory suggests that the ability of a household to earn a given level of income can depend on the characteristics internal to the household. While most studies done on poverty measurements rely on the income, expenditure and consumption data, this study has used data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that have relative effect on poverty of the household.

Impact of remittance on poverty and inequality in Nepal: Evidence from three rounds of the NLSS survey

Satis C. Devkota, University of Minnesota-Morris
Mukti P. Upadhyay, Eastern Illinois University

12:00 AM

This research paper addresses the question: How much of a role has the increase in migration and remittance played in the reduction of poverty and in the rise and subsequent fall in income inequality in Nepal?

Interpretive reflections on learning motivations in Bangladesh as revealed by poetry

Tanzeem I. Ali, University of Wyoming
Timothy F. Slater, University of Wyoming

12:00 AM

This interpretive study reveals students motivated by extrinsic rewards aligned with promises of high paying jobs due to strong test performances rather than being intrinsically motivated by the benefits of learning for its own sake.

Joint regression analysis of the effect of climate risk on food security in rural Nepal: Using Copula approach

Wenmei Guo, University of New Mexico
Alok K. Bohara, University of New Mexico

12:00 AM

This paper analyzes the effect of climate risk on food security in rural Nepal, utilizing the Nepal Living Standard Survey data and climate risk index data. We construct two indicators for food security, caloric intake per capita and food diversity, which captures comprehensive information of food security. The copula method, which allows us to obtain flexible bivariate parametric model for the continuous-count data, is used to simultaneously estimate the caloric intake and food diversity models.

Knowledge, attitude, belief and behavior of the Bagmati River users in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Soumi Roy Chowdhury, University of New Mexico
Alok K. Bohara, University of New Mexico
Hari Katuwal, University of New Mexico
Jose Pagan, University of New Mexico
Jennifer Thatcher, University of New Mexico

12:00 AM

To add to the existing state of knowledge, the present paper will list out the existence of other unidentified factors that may have a bearing on health outcomes. The relatively new branch of KABB (knowledge, attitude, belief and behavioral) studies tries to locate any differences, if they exist, in the awareness of the population about better health and behavioral practices. This paper seeks to understand the potential role being played by cultural and religious practices in explaining the inconsistency in individual’s knowledge and behavior.

Micro-climatic changes in Thar Desert in India: Development and challenges

Vinod Kumar Bhardwaj, BBD Government College
Madhukar Gupta, BBD Government College

12:00 AM

It is time to learn from the recent incidents and reframe our planning approach and also, increase our efforts on a priority basis. When it is being planned to extend the Indira Gandhi Canal to the Thar Desert districts, it is essential to construct outlets so that during any emergency outflow of excess water is assured. There are evidences of the existence of some ancient channels along with some extinct rivers like the Leek and the Sheepasaria linking the area with the seasonal river Luni. There is an urgent need to study the terrain and topography of the area to develop its drainage system and for it rehabilitation.

Nepalis to El Norte: Questions for the emerging trend of Nepali migration to the United States via Latin America

Andrew Nelson, University of North Texas

12:00 AM

In this paper, I explore the research possibilities for a relatively unknown yet growing phenomenon of Nepali migratory routes to the United States via Latin America. While it is no secret that Nepalis are increasingly entering into foreign labor migration schemes that contribute to nearly one-quarter of the country’s GDP, these routes tend to be limited to Asian parts of the world, such as India, the Arabian Gulf, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Although labor migration of Nepalis to the United States has existed for some time, it has tended to be based on plane travel via tourist, student, employment or diversity visas. However, as United States immigration officials continue to tighten visa regulation in the post 9-11 era, new avenues of entering the country through undocumented means have emerged for Nepali migrants who have joined a trend of Indian citizens traveling to the United States via Latin American routes.

Statelessness among women and children in Nepal

Indu Tuladhar, ASHMITA Women Publishing House

12:00 AM

This paper will set out an argument for the need of a stronger constitutional and legal mechanism for institutionalizing the substantive equal citizenship rights of women in order to end the gendered nature of concept of nationality and citizenship right in Nepal.

Sustainable management of contested area using ecosystem services approach

Keshav Bhattarai, University of Central Missouri

12:00 AM

This paper develops a spatially integrated conceptual framework on ecosystem service modeling approach taking the case of the President Churia-Tarai-Madhesh Conservation (PCTMC) program of Nepal that has faced several management controversies while serving the downstream communities.

The magnitudes and caste/ethnic bases of transient and chronic poverty in Nepal: A longitudinal household-level analysis (2014)

Udaya R. Wagle, Western Michigan University

12:00 AM

Using panel data from the Nepal Living Standard Surveys, this paper examines the dynamics of chronic and transient poverty and their socioeconomic determinants between 1996 and 2011.

The predicament of the Tamangs in search of identity

Gayatri Bhattacharyya, Calcutta University

12:00 AM

It is in the frame of recent nation-centric politics – in patterns of ethnic (caste/tribe/religion/language) strategizing common to greater South Asia – that pan-Himalayan Tamang identity begins to be more forcefully asserted in Nepal and India. To examine the nature of formation and assertion of Tamang identity is to revisit the debate over the relationship of ethnicity, identity politics, religion and other aspects of culture in defining and redefining the nature of communities in the South-Asian nation-states. In the history of modern India as in other parts of greater South Asia, the concept and reality of ‘nation’ has acquired very great importance. It is true of both colonial and post-colonial experience. Alongside, the notions of tradition and traditionalism, modern and modernism, ethnicity as construction and ethnicity as reality have gained renewed importance in considerations of socio-economic and cultural realities in today’s world.

Trade-led poverty reduction: A case study on Bangladesh

Tofayel Ahmmad, Eastern Illinois University

12:00 AM

The result of a multiple time series regression model shows that export, trade-to-GDP ratio, etc. reduced poverty rate in Bangladesh. The export of garments created a large manufacturing sector in the country, which provided jobs to more than 3 million people, majority of whom are women. A further research can be done in the future to see how women education and women employment in the manufacturing sector is driving the economy and society of Bangladesh.

What works best to motivate students in a general education introductory economics course?

Sakib Mahmud, University of Wisconsin-Superior

12:00 AM

Considering the research gaps on student motivation of treating economics as an interesting subject matter, the learning goal of my research is to find what works best to engender positive learning experience for students dealing with serious motivational issues. My research design is based on the convergent parallel mixed methods using the quantitative pre-and-post anonymous online questionnaire surveys and the qualitative short reflection notes.

Women’s participation in the formal financial market in Nepal: Evidence from NLSS III data

Samyukta Ghimire, Eastern Illinois University
Yagya Sharma, Eastern Illinois University
Mukti Upadhyay, Eastern Illinois University

12:00 AM

This study attempts to determine factors that influence women’s autonomy and empowerment in Nepali households. We look at a set of such variables for women, for instance, land ownership, access to credit from formal and informal financial institutions, decision to work outside of family, input to decision making on such family matters as accessing health services for herself and her children, sending children to school, and handling family finance. We explore whether there is gender bias on access to formal sources of credit or availability of public services.