M. Najeeb Shafiq

Household Schooling and Child Labor Decisions in Rural Bangladesh

Using empirical methods, this paper examines household schooling and child labor decisions in rural Bangladesh. The results suggest the following: poverty and low parental education are associated with lower schooling and greater child labor; asset-owning households are more likely to have children combine child labor with schooling; households choose the same activity for all children within the household, regardless of gender; there is a weak association between direct costs and household decisions; finally, higher child wages encourage households to practice child labor.

Education, Income and Support for Suicide Bombings: Evidence from Six Muslim Countries

The authors examine the effect of educational attainment and income on support for suicide bombing among Muslim publics in six predominantly Muslim countries that have experienced suicide bombings: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, and Turkey. The authors make two contributions. First, they present a conceptual model, which has been lacking in the literature. Second, they consider attitudes toward two different targets of suicide bombings: civilians within the respondent’s country and Western military and political personnel in Iraq. The authors find that the effect of educational attainment and income on support for suicide bombings varies across countries and targets.The findings therefore draw attention to the difficulties of making generalizations about Muslim countries and the importance of distinguishing between targets of suicide bombings.

Do education and income affect support for democracy in Muslim countries? Evidence from the Pew Global Attitudes Project

Using micro-level public opinion data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project 2005, this study investigates the effect of educational attainment and income on support for democracy in five predominantly Muslim countries: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Turkey. Holding all else constant and compared to not finishing primary education, this study finds that secondary education and higher education encourage support for democracy in Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan. The results therefore suggest that support for democracy is a social benefit of education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Regarding income, the results indicate that relative to the poor, those belonging to middle-income groups are more supportive of democracy in Lebanon and Turkey. Curiously, there is no statistical relationship between belonging to the richest groups and supporting democracy.

Educational Vouchers and Social Cohesion: A Statistical Analysis of Student Civic Attitudes in Sweden, 1999–2009

This study examines the Swedish national educational voucher scheme and changes in social cohesion. We conduct a statistical analysis using data from the 1999 and 2009 rounds of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s civic education study of 14-year-old students and their attitudes toward the rights of ethnic minorities and immigrants. Using regression models, we do not find evidence of a decline in civic attitudes and therefore social cohesion. We attribute the results to Sweden’s voucher design and context that minimized segregation and preserved civics curricula in all schools.

Do School Incentives and Accountability Measures Improve Skills in the Middle East and North Africa? The Cases of Jordan and Tunisia

There is general agreement that skill-enhancing school reforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are necessary for economic, political and social reasons. Using student-level data from Jordan and Tunisia, this study assesses the relationship between skills and the following school incentive and accountability measures: pedagogical autonomy, school competition, freedom to hire and fire teachers, publicly posting data, and parent involvement in school affairs. Quantile regression analyses of mathematics, science, and reading skills of 15-year-old students suggest that students in schools with incentive and accountability measures do not have higher skills than students in school without the measures; this suggests that schools with incentive and accountability measures are no more efficient than other schools that have not adopted the measures. In terms of equity, the reforms are not associated with higher skills for the less skilled; a notable exception is parent involvement in Tunisia, which is associated with higher science and reading skills among low-skilled students. The main policy implication is that school incentive- and accountability-based reform should not be pursued until researchers have identified the effective design properties of each incentive and accountability measure.

Gender gaps in mathematics, science and reading achievements in Muslim countries: a quantile regression approach

Using quantile regression analyses, this study examines gender gaps in mathematics, science, and reading in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Qatar, Tunisia, and Turkey among 15-year-old students. The analyses show that girls in Azerbaijan achieve as well as boys in mathematics and science and overachieve in reading. In Jordan, girls achieve as well as boys in all subjects. In Qatar and Turkey, girls underachieve in mathematics, achieve as well as boys in science and overachieve in reading. In Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tunisia, girls underachieve in mathematics and science but overachieve in reading. On the basis of the analyses, two generalizations can be made. First, key country-level economic and social characteristics appear unrelated to achievement gender gaps. Second, the overachievement of girls in reading and underachievement in mathematics and science are similar to findings from non-Muslim industrialized countries.

Aspects of Moral Change in India, 1990-2006: Evidence from Public Attitudes Toward Tax Evasion and Bribery

Observers have asserted that India’s economic rise coincides with moral change. This study assesses some notable aspects of this claim by using public attitudes toward tax evasion and bribery as indicators of moral values. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the World Values Surveys, I find that tolerance for tax evasion and bribery grew relatively slightly from 1991 to 1996, and then increased rapidly from 2001 to 2006. Double-interaction regression models show tolerance converging by gender and religion, and tolerance diverging between the poor and non-poor. However, the regional patterns are complex. Finally, university educational attainment is associated with decreasing tolerance.

What Criteria Should Policy-makers Use for Assisting Households with Educational Expenditure? The Case of Urban Bangladesh

Low household expenditure on education compromises the learning and future labour market prospects of children. This study provides an empirical framework for determining the criteria that South Asian policy-makers can use for assisting households with educational expenditure. A case study of urban Bangladesh using tobit and hurdle regression models indicate that households in the bottom two per capita quartiles should receive priority as recipients of policy assistance. Other criteria include households with parents who have not completed primary schooling and households with boys, older children and multiple children of school-going age.

A Positive Stigma for Child Labor

The authors introduce a simple empirical model that assumes a positive stigma (or norm) toward child labor that is common in some developing countries. They illustrate the positive stigma model using data from Guatemala. Controlling for several child and household-level characteristics, the analysis uses two instruments for measuring stigma: a childs indigenous background and the household heads childhood work experience.

Who Benefits from Higher Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Abstract In this article, we investigate how higher education contributes to the employment and earnings of individuals in labour markets, and whether social origins play a role in the financial benefits from higher education. We focus on these questions in nine low- and middle-income countries: Armenia, Bolivia, Colombia, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Laos, Macedonia, and Vietnam. We use the recent Skills Towards Employability and Productivity (STEP) surveys of urban labour force participants to examine individuals’ educational attainment, labour market participation, and earnings. Using logistic regressions, we find that individuals from disadvantaged origins are less likely to obtain a higher education degree. We find that in most of these countries, individuals who have earned a higher education degree are significantly more likely to be in the labour force and find employment, and enjoy sizable earnings premia. The findings are fairly robust with regard to the samples of individuals examined, and the methods used to measure earnings premia. Finally, we find little evidence that the earnings premia from higher education vary by social origins or the likelihood of an individual completing a degree. These results suggest that the benefits from higher education are comparable for individuals from disadvantaged and advantaged social origins.