Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69373 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7059
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper looks at the determinants of secondary school attendance in Bangladesh with a focus on the interaction between community gender norms and relative supply of madrasas (i.e. Islamic schools). We present a theoretical framework where the probability of children's school participation varies with respect to a non - economic factor - how the community observes social norms regarding female mobility - conditional upon the types of available schools. Household data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS) is combined with community information on the availability of non - religious secondary schools and madrasas to test our theoretical predictions. We find that in communities which are more progressive, in the sense that women have a relatively high level of mobility, the effect of non-religious school availability on attendance does not vary by gender. However in the more conservative communities, female schooling is more sensitive to the availability of, or distance to, madrasas.
Subjects: 
burka
school availability
gender norms
female education
madrasa
Bangladesh
JEL: 
D04
I21
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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