Menstruation, Sanitary Products and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation

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Created on Friday, 04 July 2014 00:00

Menstruation, Sanitary Products and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation

03 July 2014

Increasing female education is an important policy priority in many developing countries. Girls lag behind boys in schooling attainment, and female schooling is thought to be important for a variety of development outcomes...

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Abstract

Policy-makers have cited menstruation and lack of sanitary products as barriers to girls’ schooling. We evaluate these claims using a randomized evaluation of sanitary products provision to girls in Nepal. We report two findings. First, menstruation has a very small impact on school attendance: we estimate that girls miss a total of 0.4 days in a 180 day school year. Second, improved sanitary technology has no effect on reducing this (small) gap: girls who randomly received sanitary products were no less likely to miss school during their period. We can reject (at the 1% level) the claim that better menstruation products close the attendance gap. [Read More]