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Contributed articles

The paper focuses on estimation of returns to schooling in the Bangladesh context. Earlier studies which tried to quantify the returns were constrained by a number of factors including the limitations of the measurement techniques that were deployed. This paper revisits the issue and makes an attempt to build on earlier scholarly works through application of quantile regression and instrumental variable quantile regression methods. The paper finds that endogeneity problem leads to underestimation of the returns to schooling, and that the returns tend to vary along the wage distribution, which mean regression models fail to capture. The analysis shows that average returns to schooling for female is higher than that of male. The analysis also shows that returns to schooling tends to be higher as one moves along higher percentiles of wage distribution. This is found to be true both for male and female, as also for rural and urban labour markets.

This is a conference paper. ; In spite of widespread access to microbiologically safe drinking water the limited access to sanitation has undermined the expected health impact in Bangladesh. In 2003 the Bangladesh Government set a target of 100% sanitation by 2010, sharply ahead of the Millennium Development Goals target. Following the declaration of the Government's commitment, a base line survey was conducted involving Central Government, the Local Government Institutions, NGOs, development partners and communities. The survey revealed that only 33% of households were using a sanitary latrine. The Government's initiatives including the formation of a Task Force involving different administrative tiers, supporting the LGI adoption of pro-poor strategies, observation of a sanitation month, media campaigns, and the introduction of award system has dramatically raised the sanitation coverage to 78% by June 2006. This remarkable achievement gives rise to a sense of optimism that the target of 100% sanitation will be reached even before 2010.

Development, inequality and poverty are perhaps the most important issues in Bangladesh. Politicians, academics, NGO leaders, concern citizens

AbstractOver the past four decades Bangladesh has built enough domestic productive capacity in the pharmaceuticals and related industries to generate manufacturing capacity and employment to provide access to medicines in the country and to become a modest exporter of medicines as well. This paper traces the role played by government policy in fostering Bangladesh's burgeoning pharmaceuticals sector and then examines the extent to which such policies would have been permissible under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and the rules of recent trade and investment treaties. Bangladesh has not had to adhere to such rules given its status as a Least Developed Country (LDC) but will face those rules as it may graduate from LDC status in the coming years. We find that a significant amount of Bangladesh's policies would not have been permitted under the WTO, and even more policy space would be constrained under other regional and bilateral trade and investment treaties. These findings reveal that Bangladesh will face a series of challenges as it graduates from LDC status in its efforts to build its domestic pharmaceutical industry moving forward. Our findings also pinpoint challenges for current WTO and other trade and investment treaty members who now seek to build domestic productive capacity in this sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.