Returns to education in Bangladesh

This paper reports labour market returns to education in Bangladesh using data from recent nationwide household survey. Returns are estimated separately for rural and urban samples, males, females and private sector employees. Substantial heterogeneity in returns is observed; e.g. estimates are higher for urban (than rural sample) and female samples (compared to their male counterparts). Our ordinary least square estimates of returns to education are robust to control for types of schools attended by individuals and selection into wage work.Education, labor market participation, sample selection, Bangladesh

Farm Productivity and Efficiency in Rural Bangladesh: The Role of Education Revisited

This paper reassesses the debate over the role of education in farm pro duction in Bangladesh using a large dataset on rice producing hous eholds from 141 villages. Average and stochastic production frontier functions are estimated to ascertain the effect of education on productivity and efficiency. A full set of proxies for farm education stock variables are incorporated to investigate the 'internal' as well as 'external' returns to education. The external effect is investigated in the context of rural neighborhoods. Our analysis reveals that in addition to raising rice productivity and boosting potential output, household education significantly reduces production inefficiencies. However, we are unable to find any evidence of externality benefit of schooling. We discuss the implication of these findings for rural education programs in Bangladesh.Agriculture, returns to education, stochastic production frontier, Bangladesh, Labor and Human Capital, Productivity Analysis, I21, Q12, N5,

Work-Life Balance Practices and the Gender Gap in Job Satisfaction in the UK: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

This paper examines the role of work-life balance practices (WLB) in explaining the “paradox of the contented female worker”. After establishing that females report higher levels of job satisfaction than men in the UK, we test whether firm characteristics such as WLB and gender segregation boost the satisfaction of women proportionately more than that of men, thereby explaining why the former are reportedly happier. The results prove that WLB practices increase the likelihood of reporting higher satisfaction but similarly for both demographic groups thereby reducing the gender gap in job satisfaction only slightly. Still, the results indicate that WLB practices at the forefront of worker welfare policy improve the wellbeing of the workforce. Experiments with firm-fixed effects allowed by the matched dimension of the data reveal that firm effects are relevant but they only explain a half of the gender gap in job satisfaction, suggesting that the other half may be due to individual heterogeneity.job satisfaction, work-life balance practices, gender segregation, matched employer-employee data

Tackling India’s deepening gender inequality during COVID-19

As India slowly re-opens its economy following its emergency national measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, Kalyani Raghunathan (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi) and M Niaz Asadullah (University of Malaya, Malaysia) explain how India’s already high levels of gender inequality will deepen thanks to the pandemic

Social attitudes that view female child marriage as a means of protecting respectability need to change

Drawing on their extensive research of female child marriage in Bangladesh, M Niaz Asadullah and Zaki Wahhaj discuss the limitations of current deliberations over the minimum age of marriage law. They write that improving the agency of adolescent girls to make their own life choices should help reduce the incidence the child marriage more effectively than what can be achieved with legislative reform alone

Inequality and public policy in Asia

Inequality is on the rise in many parts of Asia despite decades of economic growth and falling poverty. The concern over widening income and wealth gaps has further increased following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also revived the discussion on the role of public policy in ensuring more equal market outcomes and social opportunities. This guest editorial introduces the special issue proposed by the Global Labor Organization (GLO) on inequality in Asia which includes ten papers by academics and policy researchers. The authors present contrasting research perspectives and evidence using a variety of datasets, methodologies and country experiences to better understand the evolution of inequality and its underlying causes. More specifically, they assess the role of educational expansion, population aging, migration, structural change, trade liberalization, public expenditure and social protection programs in inequality reduction. A number of policy actions are considered to tackle rising inequality such as addressing shortfalls in social expenditure, making social protection systems more inclusive and rethinking the governance of international labor migration. The recommendations also emphasize building on the lessons learnt from the pandemic

Paths to Development: Is there a Bangladesh Surprise?

Using aggregate indices of education, health, demographic, and gender equality outcomes, we empirically investigate the hypothesis that Bangladesh achieved a higher level of social development compared with countries of similar level of per capita income. Stylized facts and cross-country regression results support this hypothesis for a broad range of dimensions. Further tests show that such achievements do not simply reflect income-mediated channels and social expenditure programs. We conclude by speculating on the role of Bangladesh’s development to sustain the process of growth and on the role of governance and institutional quality for the nexus between growth and development

Early marriage, social networks and the transmission of norms

We investigate whether female early marriage is a conduit for the transmission of social norms, specifically norms relating to gender roles and rights within the household. We exploit differences in the age at menarche between sisters as an exogenous source of variation in marriage age. This approach allows us to control for beliefs and attitudes that are transmitted from parents to children. Using a sample of unmarried adolescents in Bangladesh, we first show that the timing of onset of menstruation has no direct effect on adolescent attitudes on attitudes towards gender norms. Yet we find that early marriage increases agreement with statements supportive of gender bias in the allocation of resources, and worsens the quality of a woman’s post-marital social network. We also find evidence suggesting that schooling is a complement and the quality of the social network a substitute of later marriage in terms of their effects on attitudes towards traditional gender norms

Measuring gender attitudes using list experiments

We elicit adolescent girls’ attitudes towards intimate partner violence and child marriage using purposefully collected data from rural Bangladesh. Alongside direct survey questions, we conduct list experiments to elicit true preferences for intimate partner violence and marriage before age 18. Responses to direct survey questions suggest that very few adolescent girls in the study accept the practises of intimate partner violence and child marriage (5% and 2%). However, our list experiments reveal significantly higher support for both intimate partner violence and child marriage (at 30% and 24%). We further investigate how numerous variables relate to preferences for egalitarian gender norms in rural Bangladesh

Growth, governance and corruption in Bangladesh: a re-assessment

This paper revisits Bangladesh’s ‘double paradox’ – sustained macroeconomic growth despite the poor state of governance and a high level of corruption – by critically reviewing trends in governance and corruption indicators during 1990–2017 vis-à-vis other South Asian countries. In addition, we draw upon data from a purposefully designed survey of manufacturing firms to assess the state of economic governance in the export-oriented ready-made garments (RMG) sector, the country’s main source of foreign exchange and driver of economic growth. Consistent with the country’s poor ranking in a host of indicators of investment climate and corruption perception, in-depth interviews of RMG factory owners confirm the high cost of doing business in various forms. We also find no evidence of growth-mediated improvements in indicators of governance. On the contrary, our review of print media reports suggests a growing governance deficit in the country’s financial sector. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the country’s future growth as well as performance of the RMG sector