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Ramadan school holidays as a natural experiment : impacts of seasonality on school dropout in Bangladesh

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  • Shonchoy, Abu S.
  • Ito, Seiro

Abstract

In 2000, Ramadan school vacation coincided with the original annual exam period of December in Bangladesh. This forced schools to pre-pone their final exam schedules in November, which was the month before the harvest begins. 'Ramadan 2000' is a natural experiment that reduced the labor demand for children during the exam period. Using household level panel data of 2000 and 2003, and after controlling for various unobservable variations including individual fixed effects, aggregate year effects, and subdistrict-level year effects, this paper finds evidence of statistically significant impact of seasonal labor demand on school dropout in Bangladesh among the children from agricultural households.

Suggested Citation

  • Shonchoy, Abu S. & Ito, Seiro, 2011. "Ramadan school holidays as a natural experiment : impacts of seasonality on school dropout in Bangladesh," IDE Discussion Papers 295, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    • Handle: RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper295
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2006. "Addressing Absence," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 117-132, Winter.
    2. Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2006. "The impact of parental death on school outcomes: Longitudinal evidence from South Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(3), pages 401-420, August.
    3. Kutor, Nick & Dunne, Mairead & Leach, Fiona & Chilisa, Bagele & Maundeni, Tapologo & Tabulawa, Richard & Forde, Linda Dzama & Asamoah, Alex, 2005. "Gendered School Experiences: The Impact on Retention and Achievement in Botswana and Ghana," Education Research Papers 12856, Department for International Development (DFID) (UK).
    4. Cardoso, Ana Rute & Verner, Dorte, 2006. "School Drop-Out and Push-Out Factors in Brazil: The Role of Early Parenthood, Child Labor, and Poverty," IZA Discussion Papers 2515, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Harold Alderman & Jere R. Behrman & Victor Lavy & Rekha Menon, 2001. "Child Health and School Enrollment: A Longitudinal Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 185-205.
    6. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G, 1995. "An Economic Analysis of Delayed Primary School Enrollment in a Low Income Country: The Role of Early Childhood Nutrition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 156-169, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ferre, Celine & Sharif, Iffath, 2014. "Can conditional cash transfers improve education and nutrition outcomes for poor children in Bangladesh ? evidence from a pilot project," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7077, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bangladesh; Child labor; Schools; Labor market; Drop out; Seasonal labor demand; School calendar;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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