Dr Shyamal Chowdhury

Summary

Research projects that I am currently working on include: evaluating the effect of migration on household welfare in Bangladesh; eliciting consumer preferences for nutrient-dense bio-fortified foods in Ghana and Uganda; understanding the impact of decentralization on infrastructure planning and provision in Indonesia; and measuring the extent of corruption in health sector in Bangladesh.

Research interests

My research program has been and continues to be shaped by the broad goal of trying to understand how development interventions influence households, particularly poor households under market imperfections. Empirical evaluation of impacts of interventions particularly that are related to technologies and infrastructures are important to me.

I use both experimental and quasi-experimental methods in evaluation as well as other quantitative methods. For interventions that cannot be extended to the desired segments of a population through traditional market mechanisms, I examine alternative incentive schemes that are attainable in a second-best world.

Background

Shyamal Chowdhury graduated from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh with a BSc (Hons.) in Economics, an MA in Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany, and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Bonn University, Germany. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, he worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute (from 2003-2006), and the World Bank (2006-2007) in Washington DC, USA.

Recent publications

• “Setting Weights for Aggregate Indices: An Application to the Human Development Index and Commitment to Development Index.” (with Lyn Squire), Journal of Development Studies, 42 (5): 761-771, 2006.
• “Investment in ICT-Capital and Economic Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in East Africa.” (with Susanna Wolf), Journal of International Development, 18 (4), 533-52, 2006.
• “Access to a Telephone and Factor Market Participation of Rural Households in Bangladesh” Journal of Agricultural Economics, 57(3): 563-576, 2006.
• “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis.” (with Arjun Bedi and Maximo Torero)” in Torero, M., and J. von Braun, eds., Information and Communication Technology for Development and Poverty Reduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 21-63. 2006
• “Urban-Rural Interactions in Bangladesh: A Framework for Analysis and Review of the Issues.” (with James Garrett), Asia Pacific J. of Environment and Development, 13 (1-2): 1-25, 2006.
• “The Rise of Supermarkets and Vertical Relationships in the Indonesian Food Value Chain: Causes and Consequences.” (with Ashok Gulati and E. Gumbira-Said), Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, 2 (1-2): 39-48, 2005
• “The Effect of Democracy and Press Freedom on Corruption: An Empirical Test.” Economics Letters, 85 (1): 93-101, 2004.
• “Search Cost and Rural Producers’ Trading Choice between Middlemen and Consumers in Bangladesh.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160 (3): 522-541, 2004.
• “Attaining Universal Access in Rural Areas: Business–NGO Partnership in Bangladesh as a Case Study.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 25 (2): 257-274, 2004.
• “Willingness to Pay for Rural Telephone Service in Bangladesh and Peru.” (with Maximo Torero and Galdo Virgilio), Information Economics and Policy, 15 (3): 327-61, 2003.

Contact

Email:
Website: www.agric.usyd.edu.au/staff/chowdhury/index.shtml