Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between parental migration and child outcomes in Bangladesh, focusing on school attendance and child labor. Using nationally representative longitudinal household data for 2008 and 2014, we exploit within-household variation with household, village, and time fixed effects. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity by gender and birth order. Parental migration is associated with lower school attendance and higher labor participation among eldest sons, while effects for other children are limited or statistically insignificant. We find no robust association between remittance income and household child labor hours, or between remittance income and education expenditure per child. These findings highlight the role of intra-household adjustments in migrant families and point to potential vulnerabilities among eldest sons, with implications for child welfare policies in migrant-sending households in Bangladesh.