The Role of Maternal Education in Reducing Gender Bias in Children's Education: Evidence from Bangladesh

We examined the effect of maternal education on the gender gap in children’s education in Bangladesh, exploiting geographical and temporal variation in a female stipend program. Using OLS, intent-to-treat, and instrumental variable approaches, we found that each additional year of maternal education increased children’s grade completion by up to 9 percentage points and educational spending by 8 percent. Interaction-based gender analysis revealed a pro-son bias in both secondary-level grade completion and education expenditure. Controlling for the father's education confirmed a distinct maternal effect. In the stipend-exposed subsample, mothers’ lower-secondary completion was descriptively associated with a narrower pro-son gap in educational investment.本研究以孟加拉国为研究对象，借助女性助学金计划的地域与时间维度差异，考察母亲受教育水平对子女教育领域性别差距的影响。本研究采用普通最小二乘法（Ordinary Least Squares，OLS）、意向治疗法（intent-to-treat）与工具变量法（instrumental variable）三种计量分析方法，结果显示：母亲每多接受1年教育，子女的学业完成率最高可提升9个百分点，教育支出可增加8%。基于交互效应的性别差异分析表明，中等教育阶段的学业完成率与教育支出两方面均存在亲儿子偏向。在控制父亲受教育水平的变量后，仍可验证到显著的母亲特有教育效应。在受该助学金计划覆盖的子样本中，母亲完成初中教育与教育投资中的亲儿子差距缩小呈现出描述性相关关系。