The চা-চক্র session featured Jack Thiemel, who presented “Salting the Earth: Shrimp Farming and Agricultural Externalities in Bangladesh.” Drawing on joint research with Krittika Ray, he examined how expanding shrimp farming in coastal Bangladesh affects neighboring agricultural land.
Using household data, the study finds that rice plots bordering shrimp farms have higher salinity and lower yields than comparable plots farther away. It also shows that farmers are more likely to convert their own land to shrimp farming when a neighboring farmer does, while vegetation health declines on remaining agricultural plots.
Jack Thiemel is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, where he works on environmental and development economics and is affiliated with the Economics of Environment and Energy Programme at STICERD.
