EFFECT OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT ON CHILD NUTRITION IN BANGLADESH: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS: Effect of women empowerment on child nutrition…

Rezoyana Kabir Rasha; Ripon Kumar Mandal; Mohammad Mizanul Haque Kazal

Authors

Rezoyana Kabir Rasha Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Ripon Kumar Mandal Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Mohammad Mizanul Haque Kazal Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Keywords:

Child nutrition, 5DS, Instrumental Variable, Endogeneity, Empowerment

Abstract

One of the most effective development strategies for improving child nutrition is women's empowerment. The key purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of women’s empowerment on child nutrition in Bangladesh. The data have been generated from the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS), 2015 that was published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The analysis included a total of 3275 observations. Primarily, the method of ordinary least squares (OLS) is applied to assess the impact of women’s empowerment on child nutrition. However, due to the limitations of the OLS, this relationship is estimated by using the instrumental variable regression. The data demonstrate that the child's height-for-age-z and weight-for-age-z scores are significantly and positively affected by the age of the household head, aggregate women empowerment score, gender parity gap, and food consumption score. As a result, it is apparent that as women's empowerment rises the nutritional status of their children also increases.

Author Biographies

Rezoyana Kabir Rasha, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and Commonwealth Ph.D. Scholar in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Economics at University of Reading, UK

Ripon Kumar Mandal, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics

Mohammad Mizanul Haque Kazal, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Professor, Department of Development and Poverty Studies, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka

EFFECT OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT ON CHILD NUTRITION IN BANGLADESH: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS