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Friendship and Female Education: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Bangladeshi Primary Schools

Author

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  • Youjin Hahn
  • Asadul Islam
  • Eleonora Patacchini
  • Yves Zenou

Abstract

We randomly assigned 115 primary schools in Bangladesh to one of two settings: children studying in groups with friends and children studying in groups with peers. The groups consisted of four people with similar average cognitive abilities and household characteristics. While the achievement of male students was not affected by the group assignment, low-ability females with friends outperformed low-ability females working with peers by roughly 0.4 standard deviations of the test score distribution. This is not due to the fact that friends tend to be of the same gender or to a higher frequency of interactions among friends.

Suggested Citation

  • Youjin Hahn & Asadul Islam & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Friendship and Female Education: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Bangladeshi Primary Schools," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(627), pages 740-764.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:627:p:740-764.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Aristide Houndetoungan & Asad Islam & Michael Vlassopoulos & Yves Zenou, 2023. "The Role of Child Gender in the Formation of Parents’ Social Networks," Monash Economics Working Papers 2023-23, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. Bochet, Olivier & Faure, Mathieu & Long, Yan & Zenou, Yves, 2020. "Perceived Competition in Networks," CEPR Discussion Papers 15582, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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