Khandker, Shahidur R.

Person:
Khandker, Shahidur R.

Fields of Specialization

Agriculture

Last updated: August 21, 2023

Biography

Shahidur R. Khandker (PhD, McMaster University, Canada, 1983) is currently a visiting senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and a former lead economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He has authored more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, World Bank Economic Review, and Journal of Development Economics. He has also written various books, including the Handbook on Impact Evaluation: Quantitative Methods and Practices, co-authored with Gayatri Koolwal and Hussain Samad and published by the World Bank; Seasonal Hunger and Public Policies: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh, co-authored with Wahiduddin Mahmud; Fighting Poverty with Microcredit: Experience in Bangladesh, published by Oxford University Press; and Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, co-authored with Jonathan Haughton and published by the World Bank. He has written several book chapters and more than three dozen discussion papers at the World Bank on poverty, rural finance and microfinance, agriculture, and infrastructure. His work spans some 30 countries and covers a wide range of development issues, from microfinance and rural finance, agriculture, and infrastructure to poverty, seasonality, and energy.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 46

Does Quality of Electricity Supply Matter for Development? An Evaluation of Service Level Benefits in Nepal
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-25) Khandker, Shahidur R.; Samad, Hussain A.; Koo, Bonsuk
People desire electricity not for its own sake but for the wide-ranging services it provides from lighting, communication and entertainment, refrigeration, and cooking to space conditioning and business development or improvement. That is, electricity is only useful when it powers the appliances, machines, and other devices that yield outcomes favorable to household well-being and quality of life. An extensive body of literature shows that having an electricity connection contributes to enhancing household income, productivity, and children’s education, among other types of welfare benefits. The findings of these studies also show that the welfare impacts of electrification vary by the level of service provided and the type of household connection.
Beyond Ending Poverty: The Dynamics of Microfinance in Bangladesh
(2016-07-12) Khalily, M.A. Baqui; Khandker, Shahidur R.; Samad, Hussain A.
The recent past has witnessed phenomenal growth in MFIs around the world. Today as many as 200 million people are beneficiaries of microfinance. Given its worldwide attention, microfinance has received serious criticism, including the argument that it is a fad with less-than-expected benefits for the poor. Surely, microfinance is not without any pitfalls. Yet the premise of improving access to financial services for consumption smoothing by the poor has never been a subject of controversy. What has been controversial is whether microfinance can alleviate poverty. That the poor lack an effective and affordable alternative financing mechanism to support income generation does not necessarily mean microfinance is a panacea since it involves entrepreneurial skills, which many poor lack. It is little wonder that studies evaluating the benefits of microfinance have produced conflicting results. Of course, study findings are contextual: They are positive in conducive environments and less so in unfavorable ones. Microfinance must be distinguished from anti-poverty schemes (e.g., conditional cash transfers) because benefits from microfinance-supported activities, which involve participants’ entrepreneurial skills and ability, take time to realize. This book using household long panel survey of 1991/92-2010/11 from Bangladesh addresses some of criticisms—including whether pushing microfinance has made it redundant as a tool for poverty reduction—while investigating whether it still matters for the poor after two decades of extensive growth. The book’s findings confirm the positive effects of continued borrowing from a microfinance program. Despite a manifold increase in microfinance borrowing, loan recovery has not declined and long-term borrowers are not trapped in poverty or debt. Interest rates charged by MFIs are not too high for realizing returns on investment, although the MFIs have scope for lowering them. The book is expected to contribute to the ongoing debate on the cost-effectiveness of microfinance as a tool for inclusive growth and development. It is expected to fill knowledge gaps in understanding the various virtues of microfinance against its portrayal as having drifted from its original poverty-reduction mission.
Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices
(World Bank, 2010) Khandker, Shahidur R.; Koolwal, Gayatri B.; Samad, Hussain A.
This book reviews quantitative methods and models of impact evaluation. The formal literature on impact evaluation methods and practices is large, with a few useful overviews. Yet there is a need to put the theory into practice in a hands-on fashion for practitioners. This book also details challenges and goals in other realms of evaluation, including monitoring and evaluation (M&E), operational evaluation, and mixed-methods approaches combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. This book is organized as follows. Chapter two reviews the basic issues pertaining to an evaluation of an intervention to reach certain targets and goals. It distinguishes impact evaluation from related concepts such as M&E, operational evaluation, qualitative versus quantitative evaluation, and ex-ante versus ex post impact evaluation. Chapter three focuses on the experimental design of an impact evaluation, discussing its strengths and shortcomings. Various non-experimental methods exist as well, each of which are discussed in turn through chapters four to seven. Chapter four examines matching methods, including the propensity score matching technique. Chapter five deal with double-difference methods in the context of panel data, which relax some of the assumptions on the potential sources of selection bias. Chapter six reviews the instrumental variable method, which further relaxes assumptions on self-selection. Chapter seven examines regression discontinuity and pipeline methods, which exploit the design of the program itself as potential sources of identification of program impacts. Specifically, chapter eight presents a discussion of how distributional impacts of programs can be measured, including new techniques related to quantile regression. Chapter nine discusses structural approaches to program evaluation, including economic models that can lay the groundwork for estimating direct and indirect effects of a program. Finally, chapter ten discusses the strengths and weaknesses of experimental and non-experimental methods and also highlights the usefulness of impact evaluation tools in policy making.
Seasonality of Rural Finance
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-02) Badruddoza, Syed; Khandker, Shahidur R.; Samad, Hussain A.
Simultaneity of borrowing, withdrawal of savings, and loan defaults due to the pronounced seasonality of agriculture often leads to investment failure of rural financial institutions. Lack of borrowing leads to lack of in-come- and consumption-smoothing, and in turn, causes inefficient resource allocation by rural households. Financial institutions that are active in rural areas take different measures to address the covariate risks in intermediation. For example, microfinance institutions have sought various measures such as supporting non-farm activities to diversify income, introducing seasonal loans, and bringing flexibility in loan repayments to reduce non-payments in lean seasons. This paper examines whether the financial inclusion policies of micro-finance institutions have successfully helped reduce the adverse effects of covariate risks. Analysis of house-hold and program level data from Bangladesh suggests that despite the innovative measures taken by the MFIs to cope with the covariate risks, seasonality of income still affects seasonality of borrowing and investment decisions of both the households and MFIs beyond and above what is caused normally by agricultural seasonality. Innovation is needed to promote, among other things, sectoral diversification of financial inter-mediation and to avert the extreme seasonality of rural income. Rural labor markets should be diversified enough to address the seasonality of income and consumption. Public policies guiding rural financial inter-mediation must reflect such realities of rural economies.
Does Institutional Finance Matter for Agriculture? Evidence Using Panel Data from Uganda
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Khandker, Shahidur R.; Koolwal, Gayatri B.
Smallholder agriculture in many developing countries has remained largely self-financed. However, improved productivity for attaining greater food security requires better access to institutional credit. Past efforts to extend institutional credit to smaller farmers has failed for several reasons, including subsidized operation of government-aided credit schemes. Thus, recent efforts to expand credit for smallholder agriculture that rely on innovative credit delivery schemes at market prices have received much policy interest. However, thus far the impacts of these efforts are not fully understood. This study examines credit for smallholder agriculture in the context of Uganda, where agriculture is about 35 percent of gross domestic product, most farmers are smallholders, and the country has introduced policies since 2005 to extend credit access to the sector. The analysis uses newly available household panel data from Uganda for 2005-2006 and 2009-2010 to examine (a) whether credit effectively targets agriculture, by examining determinants of borrowing across different sources; (b) agricultural and nonagricultural determinants of supply and demand credit constraints among non-borrowers; and (c) the effects of borrowing and credit constraints on household income, consumption, and agricultural outcomes. The analysis finds that although not many households report borrowing specifically for agriculture, credit is fungible and agricultural outcomes do substantially improve with institutional borrowing, particularly microcredit. Among non-borrowers, supply and demand credit constraints have fallen considerably over the period, particularly in rural areas. Access to institutions and infrastructure play a strong role in alleviating the negative effect of credit constraints on welfare outcomes, as well as determining the source of lending among borrowing households.
Dynamic Effects of Microcredit in Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-03) Khandker, Shahidur R.; Samad, Hussain A.
This paper uses long panel survey data spanning over 20 years to examine the dynamics of microcredit programs in Bangladesh. With the phenomenal growth of microfinance institutions representing 30 million members with over $2 billion of annual disbursement over the past two decades, it is important to understand the dynamics of microcredit expansion and its induced impact on household welfare. A dynamic panel model is used to address a number of issues, such as whether credit effects are declining over time, whether market saturation and village diseconomies are taking place, and whether multiple program membership, which is rising as a consequence of microcredit expansion, is harming or benefiting the borrowers. The paper's results confirm that microcredit programs have continued to benefit the poor by raising household welfare. The beneficial effects have also remained higher for female than male borrowers. There are diseconomies of scale caused by higher levels of village-level borrowing, especially for male members. Multiple program membership is also growing with competition from microfinance institutions, but this has rather helped raise assets and net worth more than it has contributed to indebtedness.
Surge in Solar-Powered Homes : Experience in Off-Grid Rural Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-10-08) Sadeque, Zubair K.M.; Khandker, Shahidur R.; Asaduzzaman, Mohammed; Samad, Hussain A.; Yunus, Mohammad; Haque, A.K. Enamul
Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in raising living standards and reducing poverty, particularly in previously lagging regions. Rapid solar home system (SHS) expansion in Bangladesh to some 3 million rural households by early 2014 has drawn the attention of donors and governments of other countries. The book s broad aim is twofold: (a) to assess the welfare impact of SHS on households, and (b) to evaluate the present institutional structure and financing mechanisms in place, noting that households want cheaper systems and good quality service while suppliers require a reasonable market-based profit to stay in business. The study entailed an intensive empirical investigation based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data consisted mainly of a large-scale, nationally representative household survey with appropriate geographic spread. Conducted in 2012 by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and assisted by the World Bank, the household survey was designed to examine SHS benefits and costs. The book addresses a number of research issues, which are grouped according to general and gendered household impact, program delivery and monitoring of technical standards, market size and demand, and carbon emissions reduction. The book also analyzes household uses of solar-electric energy services. Typically, SHS models are used for lighting, powering fans and television sets, and charging mobile devices and other electrical equipment. Finally, the book evaluates the gender-disaggregated benefits and women's empowerment from SHS adoption. The gender analysis included two major research questions: (a) can the socioeconomic status of rural women be enhanced by increasing the opportunity to participate in alternative energy-service delivery, and (b) if SHS brings positive impacts in terms of social indicators, what additional efforts can supplement them to bring about a radical shift in gender roles and responsibilities. The book's findings show that better household lighting improves household welfare both directly and indirectly. The book has eight chapters. Chapter one is introduction. Chapter two describes the current status of Bangladesh's SHS expansion program, including salient features of system operation, as well as program delivery and financing. Chapter three reviews the role of electrification in rural development and international experience in using SHS as a complementary solution in remote off-grid areas. Based on the survey data findings, chapter four identifies the major drivers of SHS adoption and system capacity selection at the household and village level, while chapter five discusses and estimates the welfare benefits. Chapter six focuses on SHS market analysis and role of the subsidy, including consumers' willingness to pay and the potential impact of subsidy phase-out. Chapter seven turns to the quality of partner organization (PO) service and other supply-side issues, along with market constraints to meet future demand. Finally, chapter eight offers policy perspectives and a way forward.
Handbook on Poverty and Inequality
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009) Haughton, Jonathan; Khandker, Shahidur R.
The handbook on poverty and inequality provides tools to measure, describe, monitor, evaluate, and analyze poverty. It provides background materials for designing poverty reduction strategies. This book is intended for researchers and policy analysts involved in poverty research and policy making. The handbook began as a series of notes to support training courses on poverty analysis and gradually grew into a sixteen, chapter book. Now the Handbook consists of explanatory text with numerous examples, interspersed with multiple-choice questions (to ensure active learning) and combined with extensive practical exercises using stata statistical software. The handbook has been thoroughly tested. The World Bank Institute has used most of the chapters in training workshops in countries throughout the world, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malawi, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand, as well as in distance courses with substantial numbers of participants from numerous countries in Asia (in 2002) and Africa (in 2003), and online asynchronous courses with more than 200 participants worldwide (in 2007 and 2008). The feedback from these courses has been very useful in helping us create a handbook that balances rigor with accessibility and practicality. The handbook has also been used in university courses related to poverty.
Estimating the Long-Run Impact of Microcredit Programs on Household Income and Net Worth
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09) Woutersen, Tiemen; Khandker, Shahidur R.
This paper investigates whether the utilization of microcredit programs has a significant impact on the income and net worth of the participants. Several micro finance institutes are optimistic on the beneficial effects of microcredit programs. Others describe microcredit with interest rates in excess of 20 percent as a poverty trap. This paper uses more than 20 years of panel data on households in Bangladesh to estimate bounds on the causal effects of microcredit programs. The analysis rejects the hypothesis that these microcredit programs are a poverty trap. Moreover, the paper finds moderately positive effects of such programs.
Mitigating Seasonal Hunger with Microfinance in Bangladesh : How Does a Flexible Programme Compare with the Regular Ones?
(Taylor and Francis, 2015) Khalily, M.A. Baqui; Khandker, Shahidur R.; Samad, Hussain A.
Microfinance institutions, often criticised for inadequately addressing seasonality and hard-core poverty, have begun to introduce innovative programs designed to tackle both the concerns. One such program in Bangladesh is the Programmed Initiatives for Monga Eradication (PRIME). PRIME exclusively targets the ultra-poor, especially in the country’s northwest region, and offers both production and consumption loans with a flexible loan repayment schedule, and other services. This article assesses the effectiveness of PRIME and regular microfinance programs in reducing seasonal hardship. Findings of this article suggest that PRIME is better targeted than regular microfinance programs and also performs better in mitigating seasonal starvation.