This dissertation combines three empirical studies to provide insights to issues of development in Bangladesh. The first chapter of this essay delves on migration in Bangladesh, which is being increasingly recognized as a lifeblood to the country's economy and plays an outsized role in its GDP. I highlight the risks and challenges facing Bangladeshi migrant laborers, as they undergo the process of migration. In the second and third chapter of this essay, I examine the interplay of cultural norms and economic outcomes in Bangladeshi society. Despite increasing economic growth, early childbirth and marriage amongst women has been a persistent concern for the country. The second chapter investigates the role of labor market participation and apprenticeships in delaying marital and fertility decisions for ultra poor women. Finally in the third chapter, I examine the impact of social norms in hindering information flow within firms, and its subsequent impact on worker productivity.
In Chapter 1 (coauthored with Narayan Das, Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet), we provide a quantitative diagnostic of attempts by Bangladeshi workers at migrating to foreign countries and the risks that they face in doing so. We show that migration failures may be as high as one third of attempts at migrating, with large financial losses for households with an aspiring migrant. Using a duration model, we find that success in migrating is associated with a current higher national migration, a larger village migration network, and an urban residence. We also find that in spite of the high cost of failure, there are still large expected gains from trying to migrate.
Chapter 2, coauthored with Narayan Das, investigates the impact of employment and apprenticeship on women's welfare through a hitherto unexplored channel - marital and fertility decisions. We exploit a randomized skills training program in Bangladesh that offered apprenticeships to women and proved effective in providing unemployed youth with long-term work. We use the exogenous variation induced by the apprenticeship program to examine down-stream effects on marriage and fertility. In particular, we inquire whether apprenticeships and jobs delay marriage, postpone childbirth, improve spousal quality, reduce dowry, and increase women's empowerment. Our results suggests childbirth is delayed significantly, despite having no delays in marital timing or spousal characteristics. We also provide evidence showing amount of dowry and women's decision-making power in the household remain unchanged.
Existing literature has highlighted several causes for low productivity for firms in developing countries. In Chapter 3, coauthored with Laura Boudreau and Oren Reshef, we hypothesize one unexamined factor that might act as a barrier for firms in improving productivity -- certain social norms hinder information flow and constrain the adoption of productivity enhancing behavior. The chapter analyzes the extent to which social stratification creates barriers to information transmission when information needs to flow from those who are of low social status to those of who are of high social status. We hypothesize that individuals who are male, older, and muslim are higher in the social hierarchy in our context, relative to individuals who are women, younger, and non-muslim. To test this hypothesis, we combine data from several Bangladeshi apparel factories. We first demonstrate the significance of information transmission for improvement in production using daily output data from factories. We then show using experimental data that workers are more productive when information is provided on productivity enhancing practices. Finally we combine observational and experimental data to provide indicative evidence that social norms might hinder firm productivity by impeding information flow within firms. We conclude the chapter with directions for future research.
