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WKHIRUPDOHFRQRP\DFWLYLWLHVRIWKHLQIRUPDOHFRQRP\DUHQRWLQFOXGHGLQDFRXQWU\¶VQDWLRQDODFFRXQW)XUWKHUPRUHLQIRUPDOLW\LPSDFWVWKHHFRQRP\E\ORZHULQJWD[UHYHQXHKDVDKDUPIXOHIIHFWRQZRUNHUV¶ULJKWVLQFOXGLQJIXQGDPHQWDOSULQFLSOHVDQGULJKWVDWZRUNVRFLDOSURWHFWLRQin the face of economic shocks, decent working conditions and the rule of law (Perry, 2007;Bacchetta et al., 2009; La Porta and Shleifer, 2014).
Earlier studies show that most people enter the informal economy not by choice, but
because of a lack of available opportunities, and in the absence of other meansof livelihood like credit constraints (Freije and Monteferrante, 2002; Oviedo et al.,2009). Stringent and costly regulations in the formal economy (Freije and Monteferrante, 2002;
Loayza et al., 2009), are among the main factors behind informality. During the last decades, agrowing number of countries worldwide have developed strategies (social security programs,etc.) and policies (financial sector development, easing business environment, agriculturalmodernization, etc.) to facilitate transition to formality. The main research question of thisdissertation is if the reasons behind the informality are lifted out, does informality reduces inthe economy? In this dissertation, informality is analyzed from the perspective of financialsystem, labor market, and household. Focusing on the high prevalence of the informality in
Bangladesh, it has been used a case country for the empirical research in this dissertation.
The empirical researchers, now-a-days mostly desire to establish credible causal claims,
which can only be guaranteed with exogenous variation of treatment or intervention
obtained from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs are considered as the goldstandard in causal inference as the design enables to minimize or even avoid bias but
RCTs are not always feasible (due to high costs and time constraints, etc.), not always
considered ethical. In such situation, causal inferences can be drawn from observational orquasi-experimental studies, if certain conditions are met.
In this dissertation, I try to establish causality from micro level observational/ quasiexperimental data obtained from different surveys in Bangladesh done by different government
and non-government

agencies. Three perennial

threats of biases can arise inestimating causality from observational data: (i) confounding bias, (ii) selection bias,and (iii) measurement bias, which can result in an underestimate or overestimate of
the effect of interest. To estimate the credible causal impact from observational data,
the standard methods like Instrumental Variables approach (IV), Fuzzy Regression

Discontinuity Designs (Fuzzy RDD), and Propensity Score weighted Differences-in Difference(DID) has been used in this dissertation.
The three analytical chapters presented in this dissertation (namely, Chapter 2, 3, and4) cover a diverse set of informality in the economy and contribute to the applied
microeconometrics literature, more specifically, to a diverse set of current topics in informal
economy by estimating causal inferences from micro level observational studies.
Each chapter makes a substantive contribution in the literature as well as policy
recommendations to reduce the informality in specific sectors for sustainable economicdevelopment. In this overview, I first highlight the motivation and common grounds ofthe dissertation, and then summarize the chapters’ individual contributions.
The first empirical research presented in chapter 2 uses the informality in the financialtransaction. In this research, I examine how the banking network in the homecountry affect the choice of remittances sending channels of the migrants. The data
used in the analysis is taken from different sources. Main data on the choice of remittanceschannels is obtained from the Survey on Investment from Remittances 2016 collected by
Bangladesh

BureauofStatistics(BBS),

theapexnational

statisticalbureauof Bangladesh; sub-district (upazila) level bank branches information is collected from
Bangladesh bank (the Central Bank of Bangladesh). This is the first attempt in theliterature that aims to examine the causal effect of banking networks on the choice ofremittance transfer channel using the instrumental variables approach. This methodology
provides the opportunity to control the unobserved confounder. The results areobtained using two-stage least square (2SLS) estimation method. The empirical evidence
obtained allow us to conclude that availability of bank branches can significantly
reduce the choice of informal channel for transferring remittances. The results are consistent
with the main findings for different specifications of the model, and robust toseveral checks. The findings can contribute directly and indirectly to several SDGs inaddition to 10.c that commits, by 2030, to reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of
migrant

remittances

than 5 per cent.

andeliminate

remittancecorridors

withcosts

higherChapter 3 uses the informality from the labor market perspective. This research analyzes theimpactofunconditional

in-kindtransfer

on

child

labor

participation.

Even

though, child labor is prohibited by laws, globally about 160 million children ages 517 years are subjected to child labor (UNICEF 2020). Earlier literature shows thathousehold poverty is the single most reasons that enforce household to send children
to work. Government in many developing countries devote a significant share of public funds
to economically vulnerable households, which can remove some of the reasonsthat children work. Using this set-up in mind, I examine the effect of government unconditional
in-kindtransfer on the child labor working

hours inhouseholdchoresandeconomic activities. Using Fuzzy Regression discontinuity design (fuzzy RDD) on thehousehold level micro data, the results show that social transfer that are transferredaiming to reduce household poverty can significantly reduce child working hours athouseholds’ chores, but the program does not show any impact of the working hours
in economic activities. The results can contribute in the SDG Target 8.7 that aims toeliminate the worst forms of child labor, including the recruitment and use of child labor, as
well as to end all forms of child labor by 2025.
In third empirical research, namely Chapter 4, I hypothesized that diversifying agriculture
production with adoption of modern technologies may enhance the productivity
and hence improve the food consumption of the household, as well as health and nutrition of
the children and women in the household. Food (production, and consumption)
constitutes a key component of a number of fundamental welfare dimensions, such as
food security, nutrition, health, and poverty, and has become major policy concern
in the today’s SDGs era of leaving no one behind. Feed the Future, led by the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID), is one of such agricultural diversification
programs that seeks to reduce poverty and under nutrition in 19 developing
countries through its focus on accelerating growth of the agriculture sector, addressing
root causes of under nutrition, and reducing gender inequality. The program is implemented inthedistrictsofsouth

andsouthwest

regionof

Bangladesh

withthe similar

vision. This study aims to examine the impact of Feed the Future (FTF) Program on
the food consumption, health and nutrition using the household level panel dataset forthe period of 2011-12, 2015, 2018-19. The dataset has been collected by InternationalFood Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and USAID in Bangladesh, representing thenationally representative rural households in Bangladesh. Using the propensity scoreweighted Difference-in-Differences (DID) strategy, the results show that the program
effectively reduce the food insecurity (increase food consumption) through increasing
production and household income. The program also increases the antenatal care visitof the pregnant women and lowers child body mass index. The models are estimatedwith different specifications to check the robustness of the main results. We found theconsistent results with the main findings. All the results are statistically significant at
1% level. The findings provide some policy implications. To address the food insecurity, andmalnutrition,agriculturaldiversification

withadopting

moderntechnologies,

and providing training to the farmers may helpful. The findings also beneficial for the policy
formulation to achieve the goal of ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for allpeople

allyearround(SDGTarget2.1),

ortoeradicating

allformsofmalnutrition (SDG Target 2.2) by 2030.
To sum up, chapter 2 contribute to the economics of financial flows, and have important
implications for both home and host country economies; chapter 3 contributes tothe social policy, labor market and health economics literature, and how to better assess policy
interventions

targetingthevulnerable

segment

ofcitizens

toimprove

their

livelihood; chapter 4 contributes to the food insecurity, agricultural development policy, health,andnutrition.

The

chapterof

thisthesisemergestheimportanceof

boththe study of informality in the economy and recommend the way out from such informalities
to achieve some of the sustainable development goals by the 2030.

考論文の要旨はＡ４判用紙を使用し，4,000字以内とする。ただし，英文の場合は1,500語以内とする。
Remark: The summary of the dissertation should be written on A4-size pages and should not exceed 4,000 Japanesecharacters. When written in English, it should not exceed 1,500 words.