This study examines intergenerational educational mobility in Bangladesh across cohorts born between the 1950s and 1990s, using data from the 2022 Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Intergenerational regression coefficients (IGRC) and intergenerational correlations (IGC) are estimated, yielding three main findings. First, while the IGRC declines for the 1990s cohort, suggesting reduced persistence of parental education on children's outcomes, the IGC, which accounts for inequality in educational attainment across both generations, follows an inverted U-shaped pattern, resulting in no net mobility change. This finding reverses earlier evidence of increasing persistence through the 1970s and indicates that educational expansion since the 1980s has progressively benefited children of less-educated parents. Second, unlike patterns observed elsewhere in the region, where urban residence confers mobility advantages, Bangladesh exhibits no urban premium. Overall mobility remains higher in rural areas, though substantial convergence occurs in the 1990s cohort. At the regional level, an East-West convergence is observed, driven by mobility improvements in traditionally less-mobile Eastern regions. Third, women historically exhibited higher mobility than men through the 1980s, with gender convergence emerging only in the 1990s cohort, largely due to accelerated male mobility gains among urban males. Bangladesh's educational mobility trajectory is thus characterized by convergence across gender, urban-rural, and region dimensions, a pattern distinct from both its historical experience and broader South Asian trends, though educational gains remain disconnected from labor market outcomes
| Repository name | URI |
|---|---|
| Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) | https://reproducibility.worldbank.org |
Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:
• OS: Windows 11 Enterprise
• Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6226R CPU @ 2.90GHz (2.90 GHz) (2 processors)
• Memory available: 16.0 GB
Runtime: 1 minute
To reproduce the exhibits in the paper, the user should do the following:
IGM in education_BD do file and run the code. As some data is restricted, the reproducibility package includes the outputs produced by the replicators. Interested users can verify this against the published paper.
Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, refer to the README file.
| Author | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Sergio Olivieri | World Bank | solivieri@worldbank.org |
| Ayago Esmubancha Wambile | World Bank | awambile@worldbank.org |
| Giovanni Razzu | University of Reading, UK | g.razzu@reading.ac.uk |
2026-04-28
| Location | Code |
|---|---|
| Bangladesh | BGD |
The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.
| Name | URI |
|---|---|
| Modified BSD3 | https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause/ |
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Sergio Olivieri | World Bank | solivieri@worldbank.org |
| Reproducibility WBG | World Bank | reproducibility@worldbank.org |
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reproducibility WBG | DECDI | World Bank - Development Impact Department | Verification and preparation of metadata |
2026-04-28
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