Female Household-Headship in Rural Bangladesh: Incidence, Determinants and Impact on Children's Schooling
49 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2004
Abstract
This paper uses data from Matlab, Bangladesh to examine the characteristics of female-headed households and estimate the impact of female-headship on children's schooling. Female household-heads in Matlab fall into two broad groups: widows and married women, most of whom are wives of migrants. These women differ from each other not only in their current socio-economic circumstances, but also in their backgrounds and circumstances prior to getting married. To identify the effects of female-headship on children's outcomes, I use a two-stage least squares strategy that controls for the possible endogeneity of both types of female-headship. Results indicate that children residing in households headed by married women have stronger schooling attainments than children in other households, while children of widows are more likely to work outside the home. The hypothesis of exogeneity of female-headship is rejected in most cases.
Keywords: Female-headed Households, Widowhood, Migration, Schooling
JEL Classification: J12, J13, J16, I21, O15
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Terror as a Bargaining Instrument: A Case Study of Dowry Violence in Rural India
By Vijayendra Rao and Francis Bloch
-
By Seungjin Han and David Bjerk
-
Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan
By Hanan G. Jacoby and Ghazala Mansuri
-
'Arranged' Marriage, Co-Residence and Female Schooling: A Model with Evidence from India
By Indraneel Dasgupta, Pushkar Maitra, ...