The Bangladesh gender gap in education: biased intra-household educational expenditures

Abu Shonchoy and Rabbani Mehnaz

No 522, IDE Discussion Papers from Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO)

Abstract: By investigating the educational expenditure of children over the ten years (2000 to 2010), we evaluate whether there exists any gender specific discrepancy at the household level and the trend of such discrepancy over the years. Using three rounds of nationally representative Household Income & Expenditure Surveys this study reveals that households spend less on education for their school-going girls compared to boys. By disaggregating the total expenditure into fixed and variable components, we find persistent gender imbalance in educational expenditure where households provide better quality of education for boys. Moreover, we find that gender based discrepancy has a very persistent trend and does not show any significant sign of narrowing the gap over the years. Cohort wise difference-in-difference estimation also reveals that the gap has initially widened and later converged but has not diminished beyond the initial level of discrepancy, which may warrant targeted policy intervention.

Keywords: Bangladesh; Home economics; Household; Education; Gender; Intra-household; Expenditure; Discrepancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-edu and nep-hme
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in IDE Discussion Paper = IDE Discussion Paper, No. 522. 2015-03-01

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https://ir.ide.go.jp/record/37656/files/IDP000522_001.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: The Bangladesh Gender Gap in Education: Biased Intra-household Educational Expenditures (2015)
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