10. Does International Migration Impact the School Enrollment and Child Labor Outcomes of Left-Behind Children? Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

This paper examines how the international migration of household members affects the school enrollment of and weekly hours worked by children living in rural Bangladesh. International migrants play an important role in developing countries, with remittances comprising 6% of the GDP of Bangladesh. Yet there is a lack of comprehensive research on how this influences child outcomes. I analyze nationally representative surveys and address potential endogeneity by using historic migration rates as an instrument for a household's migrant status. I find that boys aged 6-17 from migrant households are less likely to be enrolled in school than boys in non-migrant households, though there is no impact on girls. Boys aged 6-17 from migrant households also work more hours per week on average, with boys aged 15-17 years working 21.25 more hours than male peers in non-migrant households. Girls in migrant households work slightly fewer hours per week than girls in non-migrant households. These results suggest that rural boys living in migrant households are less likely to complete schooling, which may limit their long-run human capital formation and earning potential.

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Women in Statistics and Data Science 2024