Impact of Early Life Exposure to Environments with Unimproved Sanitation on Education Outcomes: Evidence from Bangladesh

George Joseph, Yi Rong Hoo, Nazia Sultana Moqueet and Gnanaraj Chellaraj

No 9059, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Despite Bangladesh's notable progress toward the eradication of open defecation, the country still faces severe deficits in the availability of improved sanitation. This paper analyzes the impact of exposure to unimproved sanitation early in childhood on primary school enrollment status, using pseudo-panel data for children ages six to nine years in Bangladesh. The results indicate that unimproved sanitation has a negative and significant impact on primary school enrollment. A child's early exposure to unimproved sanitation decreases the likelihood of being enrolled in primary school by eight to ten percentage points on average compared with a child with access to improved sanitation. The effect is particularly strong -- a difference of 8 to 10 percentage points -- for children ages six to seven. It is also strong in rural areas. The results are statistically robust to errors due to potential omitted variable bias.

Keywords: Water Supply and Sanitation Economics; Engineering; Sanitary Environmental Engineering; Environmental Engineering; Health and Sanitation; Water and Human Health; Town Water Supply and Sanitation; Sanitation and Sewerage; Small Private Water Supply Providers; Health Care Services Industry; Hydrology; Educational Sciences; Nutrition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-11-18
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9059

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