Social cohesion and willingness to pay for cyclone risk reduction: The case for the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project in Bangladesh

This study presents empirical evidence of the nexus between social cohesion and climate change adaptation from a tropical cyclone prone coastal district of Bangladesh. The climate change adaptation measure considered here is the reduction of tropical cyclone risk through the improvement of coastal polders. The study exploits a unique policy context and uses household data obtained through a contingent valuation survey asking whether 400 randomly sampled male and female inhabitants would pay a one-off surcharge to co-finance the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP)—the centrepiece of the Bangladesh Government's climate change adaptation policy in the coastal zone. A social cohesion index is constructed by summing subjective indicators of trust, mutual co-operation and confidence in collective action. Controlling for a large number…