Agnes Quisumbing, John A. Maluccio
Abstract We test the unitary versus collective model of the household using specially designed data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and South Africa. Human capital and individual assets at the time of marriage are used as proxy measures for bargaining power. In all four countries, we reject th...
Martin Ravallion, Quentin Wodon
It is often argued that child labour comes at the expense of schooling and so perpetuates poverty for children from poor families. To test this claim we study the effects on children's labour force participation and school enrollments of the pure school-price change induced by a targeted enrollment ...
Siwan Anderson, Mukesh Eswaran
Mridula Udayagiri, Naila Kabeer
In this path breaking study, social economist Naila Kabeer examines the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers to shed light on the question of what constitutes fair competition in international trade. She argues that if the unhealthy coalition of multinationals and labour movements is truly seeking t...
Caralee McLiesh, Simeon Djankov
Doing Business 2004 is the very first of a series of reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. To document the regulation of business and investigate the effect of regulation on such economic outcomes as productivity, unemployment, growth, pove...
Agnes Quisumbing, John A. Maluccio, Quisumbing, Agnes R., Maluccio, John A.
The paper reviews recent theory and empirical evidence testing unitary versus collective models of the household. In contrast to the unitary model, the collective model posits that individuals within households have different preferences and do not pool their income. Moreover, the collective model p...
Rachel Heath, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
We study the effects of explosive growth in the Bangladeshi ready-made garments industry on the lives on Bangladeshi women. We compare the marriage, childbearing, school enrollment and employment decisions of women who gain greater access to garment sector jobs to women living further away from fact...
Naila Kabeer
This article examines the implications of women's access to income‐earning opportunities for their position in intra‐household relationships. For those who believe that such relationships are egalitarian, this issue may not appear relevant; for others, however, there is a divergence of views between...
Naila Kabeer, Simeen Mahmud
Abstract Economic liberalization in Bangladesh has led to the emergence of a number of export‐oriented industries, of which the manufacture of ready‐made garments is the most prominent. The industry currently employs around 1.5 million workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are women. This paper...
Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Narayan Das, Selim Gulesci et al.
Abstract We study how women's choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomize...
Naila Kabeer
This paper challenges the idea that a “social clause” to enforce global labor standards through international trade agreements serves the interests of women export workers in poor countries. Drawing on fieldwork in Bangladesh and empirical studies, the author argues that exploitative as these jobs a...
Katsushi S. Imai, Md. Shafiul Azam
Abstract The study examines whether loans from microfinance institutions (MFI) reduce poverty in Bangladesh drawing upon the nationally representative household panel with four rounds from 1997 to 2004. The effects of general microfinance loans and loans for productive purposes on income, food consu...
Rachel Heath
Mark M. Pitt, Mark R. Rosenzweig, Mohammad Nazmul Hassan
We use a model of human capital investment and activity choice to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments. These include the higher return to and level of schooling, the small effect of healthiness on wages, and the large effect of healthi...
Mark Anner
This article seeks to examine two inter-related dynamics, the relationship between the international dispersion of apparel production and labor control regimes, and the relationship between labor control regimes and patterns of worker resistance. The article argues that where apparel production has ...