Adaptation Attitudes Are Guided by “Lived Experience” Rather than Electoral Interests: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Bangladesh

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The study surveyed 3,494 Bangladeshi disaster victims via a questionnaire on whether funding was for short-term temporary solutions (disaster inventories), medium-term inclusive and non-exclusive solutions (sea walls) or long-term public goods solutions (development of flood-resistant rice seeds). Results showed that more respondents choose "Middle ground" ,and it was driven by a life experience of climate vulnerability rather  than electoral incentives. While I have the following concerns:

1. Only 11 of 3494 respondents in urban companies, while 4553 belong to rural joint committees. How can these sample be nationally representative?

2. The Methodology need be clearly described. For example, the multistage stratified sampling method and the proportional size probability.

3. The questionnaires need to be presented. Did all respondents fully understand the questions? Because it relates to respondents’ educational level, political and social trust, willingness to migrate, and experience and perceptions of climate finance-related activities, and others.

4. The font size of the manuscript is not uniform, especially in Section 3.

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer #1:

We appreciate that you expressed several concerns with the apper. The elements of the paper that they indicated fall short and must be addressed include the following:

Are all the cited references relevant to the research?         

Is the research design appropriate?  

Are the results clearly presented?     

Are the conclusions supported by the results?         

Summarizing your specific comments which we addressed, please see the following:

1. Only 11 of 3494 respondents in urban companies, while 4553 belong to rural joint committees. How can these sample be nationally representative?
2. The Methodology need be clearly described. For example, the multistage stratified sampling method and the proportional size probability.
3. The questionnaires need to be presented. Did all respondents fully understand the questions? Because it relates to respondents’ educational level, political and social trust, willingness to migrate, and experience and perceptions of climate finance-related activities, and others.

Our revisions of the paper to address your concerns focus on these three specific points. After carefully re-reading the paper, we did not identify instances in which presentation of results is not clear or references cited are not relevant to the topic.

Our revisions take the form of added text highlighted in yellow in the attached file, on pages 6 and 7, and they are reproduced here. The highlighted text on page 6 explains that suburban municipalities as well as city corporations reflect urban populations for our purposes, so those populations are adequately represented (Comment #1 above):

Our primary sampling units (PSUs) for this survey were rural Union Councils (4,553), suburban Municipalities (323), and City Corporations (11). Both the suburban Municipalities and City Corporations are part of urban representation in this survey. There are fewer urban PSUs as the urban population size is lower compared to the rural one. However, climate change will have greater effects on people living in rural versus urban areas of Bangladesh.

Two added paragraphs on page 7 explain more fully the sampling methodology (Comment #2 above):

This study looks at Bangladeshi residents' perceptions of the problems posed by climate change, their political and social trust, migratory plans, and behaviors linked to climate financing. Data were gathered using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique with probability proportional to size (PPS). The sample frame employed was the Integrated Multi-Purpose Sampling Frame (IMPS). The estimated sample size of the national survey is around 3334, with a margin of error at 3 percent, a design effect of 2.5, and a response rate of 80 percent.

Based on where projects linked to climate change and climate vulnerability were being undertaken, 64 districts were categorized. Sub-districts (SSUs) and household segments (TSUs) were chosen after Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Additionally, one adult was chosen at random for in-person interviews from each family that was included in the study.     

A third paragraph on page 7 describes the preparation of the survey questionnaire and its administration, supporting the view that the questions were well understood by the respondents (Comment #3 above):

The survey questionnaire was translated from English to Bangla language to make the questions understandable to the respondents. Moreover, we recruited local enumerators who can speak in local dialects and asked them to speak in that dialects and describe the questions in easy ways to the survey participants. As a result, the respondents could easily understand the questions.     

It is worth noting that the sampling methodology and survey administration were undertaken by a team directed by Professor Tawfique M. Haque, Chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology and Director of the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North-South University in Dhaka, one of the leading survey research experts in Bangladesh. His name was left out of the author list at the start of the paper and it has been added to the attached revision of the paper.

I also have attached a copy of the English version of the survey, in which you expressed interest in reviewing.  The final version was in Bengala and also several other dialects.

hope that the revisions made to the paper and their explanations above are sufficient to address the reviewer’s concerns, we thank you for your thorough read of the paper, and we look forward to hearing back from you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is an exciting insight into the perception of climate change adaptation measures. I appreciate implementing an experimental questionnaire survey with a target group of respondents in the world's most climate-vulnerable region. Although the results are rather suggestive, they are valuable for reassessing the support system for countries vulnerable to climate change. It also shows the most vulnerable population's perception of the problem and their expectations regarding support from governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The text section is well written, including expert argumentation and justification of the findings.

Methodologically, the work is very well conceptualized, even given the problematic data collection of the sample population of Bangladesh. Precious is Chapter 9, describing the technical notes on sampling. 

I have no significant comments on the article.

A technical note concerns the graphical annexes. It is necessary to adjust the size and text of the graphs and tables. In my opinion, they are oversized concerning the size of the text of the article. The matrix on page 17 has no description. Is it Table II or Fig. III?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer #2:

We thank you for your positive responses to our paper and we do not have any specific changes, as you did not request any.  We thank you for your enthusiasm for the publication of the piece, and look forward to hearing soon if you have any other feedback.

Thanks again and regards,

 

Todd Eisenstadt

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The author's response is insufficient, especially when explaining the reasons for the representativeness of the samples. Besides, many terms are not well cited. Although an English version of the questionnaire is available now, there seems to be too much room for improvement in the current manuscript. The impact of the questionnaire's complexity and the sample's representativeness are issues that need to be considered. There are also deficiencies in the manuscript, such as the description of research gaps and methods, visualization, and presentation of results. Therefore, I recommend rejecting the current version of the manuscript.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Dear Ms. Zhao,
As you know, Reviewer #2 was quite happy with the paper, while Reviewer #1 expressed several concerns. The elements of the paper that he indicated fall short and must be addressed include the following:
Are all the cited references relevant to the research?         
Is the research design appropriate?  
Are the results clearly presented?     
Are the conclusions supported by the results?         
(Somewhat to our surprise, Reviewer #1 indicated that "Are the methods adequately described?" was not an applicable question.)
Reviewer #1's specific comments were as follows:
1. Only 11 of 3494 respondents in urban companies, while 4553 belong to rural joint committees. How can these sample be nationally representative?
2. The Methodology need be clearly described. For example, the multistage stratified sampling method and the proportional size probability.
3. The questionnaires need to be presented. Did all respondents fully understand the questions? Because it relates to respondents’ educational level, political and social trust, willingness to migrate, and experience and perceptions of climate finance-related activities, and others.
Our revisions of the paper to address Reviewer 1's concerns focus on these three specific points. After carefully re-reading the paper, we did not identify instances in which presentation of results is not clear or references cited are not relevant to the topic.
Our revisions take the form of added text highlighted in yellow in the attached file, on pages 6 and 7, and they are reproduced here. The highlighted text on page 6 explains that suburban municipalities as well as city corporations reflect urban populations for our purposes, so those populations are adequately represented (Comment #1 above):
Our primary sampling units (PSUs) for this survey were rural Union Councils (4,553), suburban Municipalities (323), and City Corporations (11). Both the suburban Municipalities and City Corporations are part of urban representation in this survey. There are fewer urban PSUs as the urban population size is lower compared to the rural one. However, climate change will have greater effects on people living in rural versus urban areas of Bangladesh.
Two added paragraphs on page 7 explain more fully the sampling methodology (Comment #2 above):
This study looks at Bangladeshi residents' perceptions of the problems posed by climate change, their political and social trust, migratory plans, and behaviors linked to climate financing. Data were gathered using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique with probability proportional to size (PPS). The sample frame employed was the Integrated Multi-Purpose Sampling Frame (IMPS). The estimated sample size of the national survey is around 3334, with a margin of error at 3 percent, a design effect of 2.5, and a response rate of 80 percent.
Based on where projects linked to climate change and climate vulnerability were being undertaken, 64 districts were categorized. Sub-districts (SSUs) and household segments (TSUs) were chosen after Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Additionally, one adult was chosen at random for in-person interviews from each family that was included in the study.     
A third paragraph on page 7 describes the preparation of the survey questionnaire and its administration, supporting the view that the questions were well understood by the respondents (Comment #3 above):
The survey questionnaire was translated from English to Bangla language to make the questions understandable to the respondents. Moreover, we recruited local enumerators who can speak in local dialects and asked them to speak in that dialects and describe the questions in easy ways to the survey participants. As a result, the respondents could easily understand the questions.     
It is worth noting that the sampling methodology and survey administration were undertaken by a team directed by Professor Tawfique M. Haque, Chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology and Director of the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North-South University in Dhaka, one of the leading survey research experts in Bangladesh. His name was left out of the author list at the start of the paper and it has been added to the attached revision of the paper.
I also have attached a copy of the English version of the survey, in which Reviewer #1 expressed interest.
Once again, I apologize for the length of the delay in our response, which is entirely on me. We hope that the revisions made to the paper and their explanations above are sufficient to address the reviewer’s concerns, and we look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
Mike Toman and Todd Eisenstadt

Author Response File: Author Response.docx