Samad, Hussain A.

Person:
Samad, Hussain A.

Agriculture and Rural Development Unit, Development Research Group, The World Bank

Fields of Specialization

Microcredit; sustainable energy; microenterprise development

Departments

Agriculture and Rural Development Unit, Development Research Group, The World Bank

Last updated: January 31, 2023

Biography

Hussain A. Samad (MS, Northeastern University, 1992) is a consultant at the World Bank with more than 19 years of experience in impact evaluation, monitoring and evaluation, data analysis, research, and training on development issues. He has been involved in many World Bank research studies covering such areas as rural electrification, energy poverty, microfinance, poverty, seasonality, migration, and household air pollution. Throughout his long career, he has co-authored books, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and reports; provided technical support to regions, field offices, and consulting firms; presented in seminars; designed course materials for training; and conducted hands-on training in workshop settings.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 32

Mobile Phones, Household Welfare and Women's Empowerment: Evidence from Rural Off-grid Regions of Bangladesh
(Taylor and Francis, 2021-04) Hossain, Monzur; Samad, Hussain
Using household survey data from off-grid regions of rural Bangladesh, this study attempts to assess the impacts of mobile phone use on household welfare and women’s empowerment. Using two propensity score-based weighted regressions (IPW and AIPW), this study finds that mobile phone use increases household income (3 to 10 percent) from different sources, such as small businesses and remittances; improves women’s empowerment; and facilitates consumption smoothing during periods of shocks. Thus, favorable policies on investment in mobile telephone technologies, tariffs on talk time and internet usage, and mobile innovations, such as mobile financial services could reduce communication bottlenecks and digital divide in rural lagging regions that will help achieve a balanced regional development. Simultaneously, policies to avoid adverse impact of mobile phone usage should also be in place.
Bangladesh - Beyond Connections: Energy Access Diagnostic Report Based on the Multi-Tier Framework
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-11-01) Koo, Bryan Bonsuk; Samad, Hussain A.; Rysankova, Dana; Portale, Elisa
The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) in the World Bank, in consultation with multiple development partners, has developed the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) to measure and monitor energy access in terms of attributes and tiers. The MTF defines energy access as one that is adequate, available when needed, reliable, of good quality, affordable, legal, convenient, healthy, and safe for all required energy applications across households, productive enterprises, and community institutions. As part of the stock-taking exercise on measuring access using MTF, ESMAP has launched detailed data collection activities in seventeen countries, including Bangladesh. Findings of this report are based on nationally representative data on access to electricity and cooking solutions.
Have Improved Cookstoves Benefitted Rural Kenyans?: Findings from the EnDev Initiative
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-07-17) Portale, Elisa; Samad, Hussain
Meeting the goal of universal access to clean cooking by 2030 remains a formidable challenge, as the current growth rate in clean-cooking coverage lags far behind the rate required to meet the goal (0.5 percent per year versus 3 percent). An estimated four billion US dollars in investment is needed to achieve universal access in twenty high-impact countries-125 times current spending of thirty-two million US dollars a year (SE4All 2018). Most of the twenty high-impact countries are in Africa and Asia.
Electrification and Household Welfare: Evidence from Pakistan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09) Zhang, Fan; Samad, Hussain
As many as 50 million people in Pakistan may still live without connection to the electric grid. Pakistan also has some of the world's worst power outages. Using data from a nationally representative two-period panel survey, this paper presents the first empirical evidence on the cost of unreliable electricity supply to households in Pakistan. The results show that lack of connectivity and poor reliability may be costing the country at least $4.5 billion (1.7 percent of gross domestic product) a year. Addressing the problem requires energy sector reforms to correct regulatory and institutional distortions in the gas and electricity sectors.
How Do Enterprises Benefit from Grid Connection?: The Case of Rural Electrification in Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-07-17) Portale, Elisa; Samad, Hussain
Many of the enterprises that make up Bangladesh’s dominant nonfarm sector (85 percent of GDP) are located in rural areas (World Bank 2015). Electrifying them can be a major driving force behind economic growth. This study is a product of the Status of Energy Access Report (SEAR), an initiative of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program at the World Bank.
Electrification and Women's Empowerment: Evidence from Rural India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03) Zhang, Fan; Samad, Hussain
Electrification has been shown to accelerate opportunities for women by moving them into more productive activities, but whether improvements in economic outcomes also change gender norms and practices within the household remains unclear. This paper investigates the causal link between electricity access and women's empowerment, using a large gender-disaggregated data set on India. Empowerment is measured by women's decision-making ability, mobility, financial autonomy, reproductive freedom, and social participation. Using propensity score matching, the study finds that electrification enhances all measures of women's empowerment and is associated with an 11-percentage point increase in the overall empowerment index. Employment and education are identified as the two most important causal channels through which electrification enables empowerment.
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.
Benefits of Electrification and the Role of Reliability: Evidence from India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-11) Zhang, Fan; Samad, Hussain
This paper estimates the welfare impact of rural electrification in India using nationally representative household panel survey data for 2005 and 2012. Analysis based on a propensity-score-weighted fixed-effects model finds that while electrification is associated with a broad range of social and economic benefits, the size of the effects depends importantly on the reliability of electricity service. Gaining access to electricity combined with a reliable power supply is associated with a 17 percent increase in income during the sample period, but gaining access to electricity alone is associated with only a 9.6 percent increase in income. The net gain from both increasing the access rate and reducing power outages in rural India is estimated to be US$11 billion a year. Moreover, India's rural electrification policy appears to be progressive because lower-income households benefit more from access to electricity than higher-income households during the sample period.
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.