Gains from female education in rural Bangladesh: A multidimensional approach

Tomomi Tanaka, Kazushi Takahashi and Keijiro Otsuka ()

International Journal of Educational Development, 2021, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Despite progress toward gender equality in education in Bangladesh, its female labor force participation (FLFP) rate has been stagnant relative to that of men, especially in marginal rural areas. To identify the overall benefit of schooling investment in women in rural Bangladesh, we examine the impact of female educational attainment on not only FLFP but also gains from marriage and household welfare. Applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design where plausibly exogenous variation in school enrollment is created by the nationwide stipend program for women, we find moderate impacts of female education on FLFP, while female with higher education are more likely to marry more educated husbands who generate higher household income, particularly from non-farm activities. The results also show the significantly positive impacts of women’s education on sanitation control and children’s health. These findings indicate that female schooling enhances women’s role and well-being through marriage and household activities rather than their labor market activities.

Keywords: Female education; Female labor force participation; Marriage; Children’s health; Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 I31 J12 J13 J16 J21 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059320305034
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:81:y:2021:i:c:s0738059320305034

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102344

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Educational Development is currently edited by Stephen P Heyneman

More articles in International Journal of Educational Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().